PIPING VIBRATIONS ( as per EN1998-4)

In order to supply a seismic validation of gas piping, it is necessary to determine the main resonance of the system: but what system? Only the building resonance to which the piping is fixed, or the piping stand alone resonance or the building plus pipng resonance? The norm, we understand, imply only building resonance, but I think this is not very correct; consider for example the idealized building plus piping representation. Only if the resonance of M! stand alone, lets say 1, is very little with respect to resonance of M2 stand alone 2, M2 M1 and M2 is very little compared to M1, the fundamental resonance of the system ( means the lower resonance) is pratically 1 ( see for example Biggs introduction to K1 k2 structural dynamics) ; this is not ever correct; for a long straight pipe ( i.e. 20 meter) , fixed to building via plastic anchors, the resonance f2 is pratically some hertz, very close to a 3-story building ( 1.6 Hertz ); The correct solution, I propose, is to perform the following procedure: 1. lets calculate the building stand alone frequency f BUILDING ( for european norm fBUILDING C/H3/4) 2. lets calculate the piping stand alone resonance fPIPING ; in this case it is sufficient to consider the flexion wave between two or more anchors ( it depend on anchor type) 3. if fBUILDING << fPIPING take for inertial load the sample of seismic spectra at f=fBUILDING 4. if fBUILDING >> fPIPING take for inertial load the sample of seismic spectra at f=fPIPING 5. if fBUILDING fPIPING take for inertial load the sample of seismic spectra at a frequency calculated with the previous idealized system For differential load ( means the load induced by different motion of piping anchors) lets consider the building resonance in the form of a plane wave: A(t,x) = A0 cos ( BUILDING t + KBUILDING x) ( A0 is determined via seismic spectrum a fBUILDING ) If we indicate as c the speed of sound in the material, we have c = BUILDING / kBUILDING Now we have to consider the phase difference of two consecutive anchors, say L the relevant distance : if L 1/kBUILDING , we can take the worste case, means a phase difference of 180; this means that a the piping span ( = beam) must support a shift of 2A 0 ; by the elementary theory of beam it is very simple to determine the induced stress if L >> 1/kBUILDING the stress induced by anchor movement could be very little; in any case I think it is better, in this condition, to ever perform a calculation as per previous point