Seismic assessment in research facility

We were asked by our client to perform a seismic assessment of a door for a biological laboratory in New Zealand. The primary purpose of the door was to act as an airtight seal between the 'clean-room' environment and the rest of the research facility. Because of the likelihood of earthquakes in such a seismically active part of the world, it was imperative to ensure the operational continuity of the seals around the door (as defined in NZS4219:2009). We de-featured the client's model to enable us to produce an analysis model suitable for us to then perform finite element analysis on. We were able to show that despite the door deflecting over 4 mm the inflatable seal around the door would accommodate this movement without failure. The analysis also allowed us to suggest design improvements that both simplified the design and reduced stresses in key area.

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