ABSTRACT
The paper shows the results of tests carried out at the Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, on 4 full scale steel storage pallet racks. A research project was sponsored by the E.U. within the ECOLEADER Research Program for Free Access to Large Scale Testing Facilities. The four specimens were chosen among six structures designed and manufactured by two different fabricators, respectively to sustain a ground acceleration of 0.075g, 0.15g and 0.35g, according to EC-8. After characterizing the own frequencies of the structures, these were tested under dynamic conditions up to failure. In the paper, for space’s sake, the experimental response is presented and discussed in detail only for two of the four specimens. It is shown that sliding of the pallets occurs for base accelerations lower than those that might be associated to structural failure. A sliding test was also performed in order to characterize and better investigate such phenomenon, which represents a limit state for the racking system.
