Recent research on the design and behaviour of drive-in steel storage racking systems

This paper summarizes a recently completed research programme carried out at the University of Sydney on drive-in steel storage racks subjected to horizontal impact loads. Impact loads develop frequently during the normal operation of drive-in racks when the forklift truck strikes an upright on entering or leaving a bay, and may lead to local or global collapse. The collapse follows the bowing of the upright which may cause a pallet to drop off the supporting beam rails and initiate progressive collapse down through the bay and possibly into adjacent bays as well.
The research programme comprised full-scale tests on assemblies of a four-bay-wide racking system, tests on system components, the development of finite element models capable of predicting the behaviour of the system accurately, parametric studies of the strengths and stiffnesses of steel storage racks, the development of a simple mechanical model for understanding the dynamic behaviour of the system during impact and a reliability analysis for deriving equations for the design impact loads and associated load factors.
The purpose of the paper is to give an overview of the methodology adapted for the research programme and to present the main findings and final outcome of the research.