Chile Earthquake of 2010

On February 27, 2010, an earthquake off the coast of Chile registered a magnitude of 8.8, making it the largest in Chile since 1960. Between those two massive quakes, Chile enacted codes to improve the seismic resilience of structures. Because the Chilean codes are similar to codes in the United States, the performance of industrial facilities in Chile provided an unprecedented opportunity to study how heavy U.S. industrial facilities might perform during a large seismic event. In April 2010, the ASCE/SEI Chile Assessment Team undertook a mission to observe structures in the affected zone and to gather information that would be useful to the development of U.S. codes. One team concentrated on identifying strengths and weaknesses in the response of industrial structures. This volume contains the teams report on earthquake effects at the following facilities: CAP Acero Huachipato Steel Plant, including the coke plant, two blast furnaces, bar mills, a hot rolling mill, and a pier; ENAP Bio Bio Refinery, including process units, fin fan units, a wooden cooling tower, control buildings, and a tank farm; Abastible San Vicente Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Terminal, including two LPG spheres, an LPG tank, a pipe rack, and a pier; Santa Maria Power Station, a coal-fired plant under construction; and A base isolated pier at the Port of Coronel. This report also includes an analysis of anchor bolt performance at these facilities and overall recommendations of the assessment team. Nine appendixes of supporting documentationincluding English translations of two Chilean standardsare available for download. For structural engineers, this report provides critical information for the development and implementation of seismic codes and standards, as well as for focusing retrofit efforts in heavy industrial facilities.