Seismic Demand on Acceleration-Sensitive Nonstructural Components

Nonstructural components should be subjected to a careful and rational seismic design, in order to reduce economic loss and to avoid threats to the life safety, as well as what concerns structural elements. The design of nonstructural components is based on the evaluation of the maximum inertial force, which is related to the floor spectral accelerations. The question arises as to whether the European Building Code, i.e. Eurocode 8, is able to predict actual floor response spectral accelerations occurring in structures designed according to its provisions. A parametric study is therefore conducted on five RC frame structures designed according to Eurocode 8. It shows that Eurocode formulation for the evaluation of the seismic demand on nonstructural components does not well fit the analytical results for a wide range of periods, particularly in the vicinity of the higher mode periods of vibration of the reference structures. The inconsistent approach of current European building codes to the design of nonstructural components is also highlighted. For this reason a parametric study is conducted in order to evaluate the seismic demand on light acceleration-sensitive nonstructural components caused by frequent earthquakes. The above mentioned RC frame structures are therefore subjected to a set of frequent earthquakes, i.e. 63% probability of exceedance in 50 years. A novel formulation is proposed for an easy implementation in future building codes based on the actual Eurocode provisions.