Seismic assessment of acceleration-sensitive nonstructural elements: reliability of existing shake table protocols and novel perspectives.

Nonstructural elements (NEs) are typically associated with major seismic risk, as several postevent surveys and literature studies highlighted in the last few decades. NE seismic risk is often expressed in terms of critical functioning disruption, economic losses, and casualties, and this might be significant even in the case of low seismicity sites. In particular, seismic risk can be more critical for NEs than for structural parts, especially frequent seismic events. Shake table testing represents the most reliable method for seismic assessment and qualification of NEs that are sensitive to accelerations (i.e., acceleration-sensitive NEs). However, several protocols and testing inputs were defined in literature and codes but none of them has been assessed in terms of seismic scenario representativity and reliability. The present study reports the preliminary results of an extensive investigation into the seismic assessment and qualification of NEs through experimental methods and shake table testing. Two reference shake table protocols defined by regulations/codes (AC156 and FEMA 461) are assessed in terms of seismic damage potential/severity considering inelastic single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems and assuming the reliability index as an evaluation parameters. Novel perspectives for developing more reliable shake table protocols and seismic inputs are traced in the light of the preliminary results.