The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Seismic performance of nonstructural and secondary structural elements

Sakamoto, Isao

UCB/EERC-78/10, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1978-06, 79 pages (706/S24/1978)

A methodology is described for the evaluation of the damageability of nonstructural and secondary structural elements under seismic loading. In the first half of the report, problems associated with the assessment of the response of nonstructural elements to aseismic loading--including the classification of such elements and the damage to them, design methods, and methods of evaluation--are addressed. In the second half of the report, a general procedure is developed by which the damageability of secondary structural walls in existing buildings can be evaluated. Damageability is defined as a function of the capacity of elements to dissipate energy. A method whereby the mechanical behavior of nonstructural elements can be predicted is described. Models for the simulation of the mechanical behavior of assembly models--models of secondary wall systems comprising unit models of elements within the system--are discussed and their implementation is described and illustrated. Examples of the prediction of the mechanical behavior of secondary walls by the models mentioned above are described in the appendices to the report.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-78-10.pdf (4 MB)