Seismic Zones

[vrl3]

Dear Expert,

for the stress analysis of the piping we have been specified that the plant location lies in Seismic Zone III.

What is the value in terms of acceleration or in terms of
" g ".

Is there any general chart that specifies the g value for the corresponding zones.

Regards

vrl3

 

[kstaylor]

You need to look at either the International Building Code from the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), or Minimum Design Loads on Buildings and Other Structures, ASCE 7-98, from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

ASCE 7-98 used to be an ANSI publication (ANSI A-58.1) until the ASCE took it over in 1988. Some people still refer to ANSI seismic zones because of this historical link. ASCE 7-98 can be found at the following address:

http://www.pubs.asce.org/BOOKdisplay.cgi?9990609

.

The IBC can be found at

http://www.icbo.org

and is the recently renamed Uniform Building Code (aka UBC).

Both documents cover wind, seismic, snow & ice, and other loads, and have their own sets of equations, factors, charts, tables, etc., and have their own definitions of terms. While similar in content, the methods are slightly different and will result in slightly different answers.

Your local jurisdiction may have dictated which of these Codes to use in doing wind & seismic analysis on structures including piping.