Influence of pallets on the behaviour and design of steel drive-in racks

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Author(s)
Gilbert, Benoit P
Teh, Lip H
Badet, Romain X
Rasmussen, Kim JR
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2014
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This paper analyses the influence of horizontal bracing restraints provided by the friction between pallet bases and rail beams on the static behaviour and design of steel drive-in storage racks. The pallet bracing restraints are shown to significantly influence the structural behaviour of the rack, and their effect on the bending moment distribution of the uprights is studied in the paper. The 2D single upright model proposed by Godley is improved in this study by including the restraints provided by the plan flexural stiffness of the rail beams and the friction between the pallets and rail beams. The improved 2D model was ...
View more >This paper analyses the influence of horizontal bracing restraints provided by the friction between pallet bases and rail beams on the static behaviour and design of steel drive-in storage racks. The pallet bracing restraints are shown to significantly influence the structural behaviour of the rack, and their effect on the bending moment distribution of the uprights is studied in the paper. The 2D single upright model proposed by Godley is improved in this study by including the restraints provided by the plan flexural stiffness of the rail beams and the friction between the pallets and rail beams. The improved 2D model was found to accurately reproduce the bending moment distributions obtained using 3D advanced finite element analysis. The 2D single upright model is used to analyse 36 drive-in racks under various load case combinations. The paper evaluates the influence of the pallet bracing restraints on the ultimate capacity of drive-in racks, clarifies the loading pattern(s) governing the structural design and determines the friction coefficient, or strength of a restraining device, required to prevent the pallets from sliding. It is shown that while restraints from pallets could potentially be considered in design, they would not lead to more economic structural solutions.
View less >
View more >This paper analyses the influence of horizontal bracing restraints provided by the friction between pallet bases and rail beams on the static behaviour and design of steel drive-in storage racks. The pallet bracing restraints are shown to significantly influence the structural behaviour of the rack, and their effect on the bending moment distribution of the uprights is studied in the paper. The 2D single upright model proposed by Godley is improved in this study by including the restraints provided by the plan flexural stiffness of the rail beams and the friction between the pallets and rail beams. The improved 2D model was found to accurately reproduce the bending moment distributions obtained using 3D advanced finite element analysis. The 2D single upright model is used to analyse 36 drive-in racks under various load case combinations. The paper evaluates the influence of the pallet bracing restraints on the ultimate capacity of drive-in racks, clarifies the loading pattern(s) governing the structural design and determines the friction coefficient, or strength of a restraining device, required to prevent the pallets from sliding. It is shown that while restraints from pallets could potentially be considered in design, they would not lead to more economic structural solutions.
View less >
Journal Title
Journal of Constructional Steel Research
Volume
97
Copyright Statement
© 2014 Elsevier Inc. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Civil engineering
Structural engineering
Building