Seismic Design Requirements of the

2007 RMI Specification &

Commentary
Presented by:
Daniel Clapp Frazier Industrial Co
Engineering Chairman of the Rack Manufacturers Institute
Chairman, Specification Advisory Committee of the Rack
Manufacturers Institute

 Rack Manufacturers Institute

Independent, incorporated non-profit Trade

Association formed in 1958 to advance
standards, quality, safety and general
fitness for intended use of Industrial Steel
Storage Rack Systems.

 Specification for the Design, Testing and

Utilization of Industrial Steel Storage Racks

First edition in 1964
First seismic design information in 1972
Approved as an ANSI Standard in 1974
Current ANSI Standard MH 16.1-2004
Current RMI Specification April 2007

Storage Rack Description

Frames braced in the cross-aisle direction.
Shelf beams tying the frames together down-aisle.
Beam connectors on the end of the beams.
Base plates anchored to the floor with post-installed anchors.

 Load Combinations

RMI Section 2.1 - ASD design method

RMI Section 2.2 - LRFD design method

 Load Combinations
Introduce a Product Load (PL)

PL = Maximum Load from pallets or products

stored on the racks.

 Load Combinations
Introduce a Product Load (PL)

PL = Maximum Load from pallets or products

stored on the racks.

LRFD design method

1.2DL + 1.4PL + 1.6LL + 0.5(Lr or SL or RL)

 Load Combinations
Introduce a Product Load (PL)

PL = Maximum Load from pallets or products

stored on the racks.
PLapp = When checking for seismic uplift, the
portion of pallet or product load that is used to
compute the seismic base shear.

 Load Combinations
Include vertical component of seismic force
ASD design method
3) (0.6 - 0.11SDS)DL + (0.6 - 0.14SDS)PLapp-EL
4) (1 + 0.11SDS)DL + (1 + 0.14SDS)PL + LL + (Lr or SL or RL) +EL

LRFD design method

5) (1.2 + 0.2SDS)DL + (0.85 + 0.2SDS)PL + 0.5LL + 1.5EL + 0.2SL

6) (0.9 0.2SDS)DL+ (0.9 0.2SDS)PLapp 1.5EL

 Seismic Resistance
RMI Section 2.6
Down-aisle - Moment frames
Beam Connector as the inelastic element.

 Seismic Design based on Equivalent Lateral

Force procedure.
Other methods are encouraged such as
Displacement-Based Analysis
RMI uses the current ground motion

parameters from the USGS CD

S s , S 1, Fa, F v
Site soil conditions are generally not known and
are assumed to be D

 RMI Section 2.6.2

V CsIp Ws

IP is the system importance factor

IP = 1.5 for essential facilities or hazardous material

storage.
IP = 1.0 for all other rack structures.
For storage rack in areas open to the public, (e.g., in
warehouse retail stores), IP = 1.5. If a displacement based
evaluation of the rack structure is performed in either of the
two principle directions of the rack, IP may be taken as 1.0 in
that direction.

 RMI Section 2.6.2

V CsIp Ws

WS is the system seismic mass

WS = 0.67 xPL RF xPL DL 0.25 xLL

PLapp = PLRF x PL
PLRF is the pallet load reduction factor
Seismic Force Direction
Cross-Aisle
Down-Aisle

PLRF
1.0

PL Average

PLMaximum

 RMI Section 2.6.2

V CsIp Ws

WS is the system seismic mass

WS = 0.67 xPL RF xPL DL 0.25 xLL

PL Average
PL Maximum

PLAverage

For warehouse retail stores, open to the general public, PL Average shall be taken
as PLMaximum.
For all other types of warehousing PLAverage is the maximum total weight of
product expected on all the beam levels in any row divided by the number
of beam levels in that row.

PLMaximum
Maximum weight of product that will be placed on any one beam level in that
row.

Adjusted MCE Spectral Response Acceleration Parameters

SMS = FaSS SM1 = FvS1

Design Spectral Response Acceleration Parameters

SDS = (2/3)SMS
SD1 = (2/3)SM1

Seismic Response Coefficient

SD1
but need not
C

be more than: s
TR
but shall not be taken as less than:

SDS
Cs
R

0.044 SDS

Additionally, where S1 0.6g CS shall not be less than

Cs

0.5S1
R

 Connection Rotational Capacity

RMI Section 2.6.4

Connector MAX from testing in Section 9.6 shall

be greater than:
1.5C d 1 s
D
h total

 Connection Rotational Capacity

RMI Section 2.6.4

Connector MAX from testing in Section 9.6 shall

be greater than:
1.5C d 1 s
D
h total

Cd is the deflection amplification factor. From

FEMA 460 Cd =5.5

 Connection Rotational Capacity

RMI Section 2.6.4

Connector MAX from testing in Section 9.6 shall

be greater than:
1.5C d 1 s
D
h total

a is the second order amplification factor from

N
FEMA 460
k c k be
L

i 1

pi

Nc Nb

h pi

k c k be
k b k ce k c k be

k c k be k b k ce

 Connection Rotational Capacity

RMI Section 2.6.4

Connector MAX from testing in Section 9.6 shall

be greater than:
1.5C d 1 s
D
h total

Ds is the seismic displacement.

The displacement shall be determined using the
same structural system stiffness as used to
determine the period for the base shear
calculation.

 Connection testing

Strength testing Cantilever test

RMI Section 9.4.1

Cyclical testing
RMI Section 9.6

 Cyclical Test Results

 Additional RMI Specification requirements

Load Application and Rack Configuration
Drawing
Capacity Plaque

 Additional RMI Benefits

R-Mark

Questions
Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments:
Daniel Clapp
Frazier Industrial Co
Long Valley, NJ 07853
(908)876-3001 x 272
DClapp@Frazier.com