Seismic demand on light acceleration-sensitive nonstructural components in European reinforced concrete buildings

In this paper, a parametric study is conducted in order to evaluate the seismic demand on light acceleration-sensitive nonstructural components caused by frequent earthquakes. The study is motivated by the inconsistent approach of current building codes to the design of nonstructural components; the extensive nonstructural damage recorded after recent low-intensity earthquakes also encouraged such a study. A set of reinforced concrete frame structures with different number of stories, that is, 1 to 10 stories, are selected and designed according to Eurocode 8. The structures are subjected to a set of frequent earthquakes, that is, 63% probability of exceedance in 50years. Dynamic nonlinear analyses are performed on the reference structures in order to assess the accuracy of the equations to predict seismic forces acting on nonstructural components and systems in Eurocode. It is concluded that the Eurocode equations underestimate the acceleration demand on nonstructural components for a wide range of periods, especially in the vicinity of the higher mode periods of vibration of the reference structures; for periods sufficiently larger than the fundamental period of the structure, instead, the Eurocode formulation gives a good approximation of the floor spectra. Finally, a novel formulation is proposed for an easy implementation in future building codes based on the actual Eurocode provisions. The proposed formulation gives a good estimation of the floor spectral accelerations and is able to envelope the floor spectral peaks owing to the higher modes. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.