Previous work at the University of California, Berkeley, identified the presence of a wide variety of equipment, tanks, material storage systems, and experimental setups in campus laboratories (Comerio and Stallmeyer, 2002). Development of a family of details to seismically restrain such contents revealed different physical conditions in the labs of each building that significantly affected the details (Comerio, 2003). In addition, interest in “do-it-yourself” seismic protection of contents generated by the Q-Brace Program on the campus resulted in extensions to the program that sometimes produced ineffective restraint or anchorage.
To maintain an ongoing and effective seismic restraint program for contents in laboratories, for each building a “user's manual” is needed that takes into account differences in equipment, supplies, and other contents, and the capacities of floors, walls, benchtops, and overhead structures for use in providing such restraint. This report suggests a format for such manuals that will require input from a seismic engineer for initial preparation, but, for most conditions, will allow implementation without further engineering input. In addition to documenting the opportunities for seismic restrain t in the laboratories uni que to each building and typical details for ongoing use, the suggested format includes information about the expected overall seismic performance of the building and its utilities to enable emergency planning by the researchers. Also included are suggestions for methods of prioritizing contents for receiving protection from seismic shaking. Two example building case studies are included in the report.
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