Design and analysis of automated rack supported warehouses

Background: The lack of codified standards for the design of automated rack supported warehouses forced engineers to use personal experience and commonly accepted rules. Objective: This paper investigates the efficacy of applying Eurocodes’ rules for the design and analysis of automated rack supported warehouses. Structural performance, construction feasibility and economic effort are considered. Method: A typical case study building was designed following the two approaches proposed by Eurocodes: elastic and dissipative. Results: The satisfaction of the capacity design requirements, used for dissipative approach, was not always possible. Analyses showed the development of non-uniform collapse mechanisms and yielding patterns. Conclusion: Specific design rules and analysis techniques shall be developed accounting for the structural performance of automated rack supported warehouses.