Earthquake Evaluation of the Non-Structural Elements in a Thermal Power Plant

Non-Structural elements such as mechanical, electrical and architectural elements always posses serious damage potentials during earthquakes. Degree of damage imposed by the non-structural elements is not usually measured by the physical damages caused, but more so by the amount of the economical and functional disruptions created in a built environment. This phenomenon is enhanced where the functional performance criteria used for the specific site should be of higher standards, meaning for example the “immediate use” criteriaIn order to account for this sort of possible interruptions and plan for the worst case scenario during an earthquake in a thermal power plant in Iran. A study was carried out to evaluate the seismic vulnerability status of non-structural components of the main control building in this power plant. Level one and two assessment methods, namely; rapid and detailed evaluations were used. Three main documents considered for this evaluation were the MCEER, FEMA-310 and FEMA-356 recommendations. The method used and the results obtained which are classified into four hazard levels namely; very high, high, intermediate and low are to be presented in this paper.