Special Issue on “Seismic Performance of Non-Structural Elements and Systems”

In earthquake engineering, the non-structural elements (NSEs) are all parts of a building and its contents, except the structural elements specifically designed to be part of the load-resisting system. NSEs are often categorized into three main groups: 1) architectural elements, 2) systems and equipment, and 3) contents. Since the development of performance-based earthquake engineering, the role of NSEs in the design and assessment of buildings, reducing seismic risk, facilitating return to functionality, and enhancing overall infrastructure resilience has become increasingly apparent. Recent and high profile earthquakes striking highly developed countries, like Loma Prieta (US) 1989, Northridge (US) 1994, Hanshin (Japan) 1995, Wenchuan (China) 2008, Christchurch (NZ) 2011, Emilia-Romagna (Italy) 2012, Central Italy 2016, Turkiye-Syria (Turkey) 2023 among others, showed that major economic losses were due to damage of NSEs. NSE damage (as a percentage of total damage) has varied according to the use of the building and its structural system, reaching peaks of 60% for residential buildings to more than 90% for hospital buildings. These high losses are often a result of building downtime.