SEISMIC DEMAND AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF NON-STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IN A LOW-DAMAGE BUILDING SYSTEM

Recent lessons from past earthquakes repeatedly showed the vulnerability of existing buildings and of non-structural
\nelements. In the past decades, efforts have mainly focused on improving the seismic performance of the structural
\nskeleton. Although buildings designed according to modern and recent seismic codes generally performed as expected
\nby securing the human life, the observed damage was often deemed too expensive to be repaired and stakeholders often
\npreferred to demolish and rebuild the buildings. For this reason, within a performance-based seismic design approach,
\nthe attention is nowadays focusing on two main objectives: 1) the harmonization of performance objectives between
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\nstructural and non-structural elements; 2) the development of damage-control or low-damage structural and non-
\nstructural systems.
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\nWithin the framework of an EU-funded SERA project, titled “(Towards the) Ultimate Earthquake proof Building
\nSystem: development and testing of integrated low-damage technologies for structural and non-structural elements”, a
\ntwo-storey 1:2 scale fully prefabricated and dry-assembled timber-concrete low-damage integrated building system,
\ncomprising different high performance or damage-resistant non-structural elements (facades, light and heavy partitions),
\nhas been tested on a 3D shake-table at the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) in Lisbon.
\nThe experimental program consisted in one - two - and three - dimensional seismic tests performed at increasing
\nintensities. The selected input ground motions were representative of spectral-compatible earthquakes at various level of
\ncode-based limit states up to Collapse Prevention.
\nThis paper provides the preliminary results of the experimental campaign focusing on the seismic performance of the
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\ntwo typologies of partition wall tested, specifically 1) the fiber-reinforced ceramic gypsum partitions and 2) the low-
\ndamage masonry infill wall. After an initial description of the detailing, the assembly/construction phases and the
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\nmonitoring system of these elements, the test results are presented in terms of peak floor accelerations and maximum
\ninter-storey drifts in order to investigate the seismic demand at which the non-structural elements were subjected. The
\nseismic performance of the partition walls is then described, focusing on both their global behaviour and the observed
\ndamage. Finally, dynamic identification by impact hammer is also provided for the two partition walls.