An innovative approach to the seismic assessment of non-structural components in buildings

The analysis and design of structural systems to comply with life safety requirements have been the main thrust of earthquake engineering research. As community expectations increase, there has been increasing attention to address potential economic losses resulted from earthquakes. The economical impact associated with damage to non-structural building components in recent earthquake events has been found to exceed those associated with structural damage. In this paper, the economic significance of earthquake induced nonstructural damage and the limitations of current design methodology is discussed. An alternative assessment approach based on considering acceleration, velocity and displacement is introduced and explained by relating to fundamental principles. The merit of this approach in making simple and realistic assessments for regions of low and moderate seismic activity is demonstrated. Whilst the new methodology is yet to be fully developed, the innovative concept presented is original and has never been published previously.