Seismic safety assessment for chemical facilities

Industrial facilities, especially chemical facilities, need to reduce their vulnerability to earthquakes so that they keep their employees and infrastructure safe and reduce economic losses. TÜV SÜD conducts comprehensive seismic safety assessments to help chemical facilities ensure compliance with the highest safety standards.

With an increasing focus on disaster preparedness and risk mitigation, site-specific seismic assessments are becoming increasingly important. This is especially the case in regions prone to seismic activity.

Proper assessment and mitigation are crucial to ensure the structural safety of facilities, minimise costly downtimes, and reduce economic losses. For example, it can decrease the retrofitting costs associated with seismic damage.

In addition to the obvious need to keep people and facilities safe, regulatory compliance is another key driver for companies looking to mitigate seismic risks. Seismic safety assessment service is therefore needed to ensure compliance to national and international seismic safety safety standards.

Thorough assessment can also identify potential structural weaknesses early in the design or planning stage. This further improves site safety and delivers economic efficiency.

TÜV SÜD has extensive experience in performing seismic assessments for industrial and chemical facilities globally.

We offer a comprehensive analysis of chemical facilities in the form of a two-level approach. This ensures that we detect and mitigate both minor and major vulnerabilities.

Our services help you comply with international standards such as the German VCI-Guideline, ensuring that facilities are compliant and protected against seismic risks. Through early detection and tailored recommendations, we help reduce the cost of retrofitting and improve overall safety.

Based on the German VCI-Guideline and your experience, we assess seismic risks in two levels.

Level 1

First, we conduct a walk down of your plant to identify weak points of construction and estimate the seismic safety of the facility. A checklist of questions considers the following categories:

• Structures (without or low seismic design).
• Non-load bearing elements and components.
• Pipes.
• Stored goods.

This stage results in two possible outcomes: Positive (meaning the category has a sufficient seismic resistance) or Negative (meaning we have identified a weakness and will recommend measures for improvement).

The work for a Level 1 assessment usually contains the following steps:

• Preparation – We clarify what will be evaluated, examine documents and site drawings, and preparing the plant walk down agenda.
• Definition/assignment of hazard indices for chemical materials and impact potential.
• Plant walk down with photo documentation.
• Evaluation of walk down documentation, seismic safety report with recommendations, and proposal for follow up actions if required.

Level 2

If we identify a seismic weakness of a structure or component and need a more detailed calculation to assess the seismic safety, we will use a computer model to calculate the seismic resistance.