Seismic assessment and qualification of non-structural elements in Europe: a critical review

Non-structural elements are not part of the building’s structural load-bearing system but are nonetheless subjected to the same dynamic environment during an earthquake. Even if the structural systems are designed to permit immediate occupancy after a seismic event, the failure of non-structural elements such as partitions, ceiling systems, and piping systems could significantly affect the performance and the functionality of buildings after an earthquake. In many seismic events that have struck densely built regions in the twentieth century, non-structural losses have exceeded structural losses in most affected buildings. In Europe, only limited seismic design prescriptions are included in building codes for the seismic design and qualification of non-structural elements. Seismic qualification testing to verify non-structural elements capacities includes both shake table testing as well as displacement- or force-controlled quasi-static testing. In this paper, a critical review of the methodologies available in the literature to evaluate the seismic performance of non-structural elements is presented. The testing procedures could be used both to verify that specific performance objectives for a given intensity are satisfied as well as to develop fragility functions useful in the loss estimation framework. The experimental procedures available worldwide are compared here, focusing on their applicability to the European context. Focus is on the likeliest approach to be used in Europe for the seismic qualification of non-structural elements by shake table testing. The proposed testing protocol was appraised trough shake table tests on a specimen meant to be representative of an acceleration-sensitive non-structural element.