MKAE 1123: SEISMIC MAINTAINENCE

ASSIGNMENT 33

NON-STRUCTURAL EARTHQUAKE DAMAGES AND ITS

MITIGATIONS

MOHAMMED AL-AWFI MKA161055

LECTURER
DR. SOPHIA C. ALIH
M47-125
1.0 EARTHQUAKES NON-STRUCTURAL DAMAGES

Nonstructural failures have accounted for the majority of earthquake damage in several
recent earthquakes worldwide. Thus, it is critical to raise awareness of potential
nonstructural risks, the costly consequences of nonstructural failures, and the opportunities
that exist to limit future losses. Nonstructural components of a building include all of those
components that are not part of the structural system Figure1.1 all of the architectural,
mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, as well as furniture, fixtures, equipment, and
contents. Windows, partitions, granite veneer, piping, ceilings, air conditioning ducts and
equipment, elevators, computer and hospital equipment, file cabinets, and retail merchandise
are all examples of nonstructural components that are vulnerable to earthquake damage. The
primary purpose of this guide is to explain the sources of nonstructural earthquake damage
and to describe methods for reducing the potential risks in simple terms.(Perry, Phipps, &
Hortacsu, 2010)

Figure1.1 A three-dimensional view of a portion of a building. This figure shows both

structural and nonstructural components. (Perry et al., 2010)

The non-structural components of a building include all building parts and contents except
for those previously described as structural. These components are generally specified by
architects, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and interior designers. However, they
may also be purchased and installed directly by owners or tenants after construction of a
building has been completed. Figure1.2 shows examples of interior nonstructural
components damages.

Figure 1.2 Non-structural damages (Perry et al., 2010)

In commercial real estate, the architectural and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems
may be considered a permanent part of the building and belong to the building owner; the
furniture, fixtures, equipment and contents, by contrast, typically belong to the building
occupants.

ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS such as partitions, ceilings, storefronts, glazing,

cladding, veneers, chimney, fences, and architectural ornamentation.
MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, AND PLUMBING (MEP) COMPONENTS such as
pumps, chillers, fans, air handling units, motor control centers, distribution panels,
transformers, and distribution systems including piping, ductwork and conduit.
FURNITURE, FIXTURES & EQUIPMENT (FF&E), AND CONTENTS such as
shelving and book cases, industrial storage racks, retail merchandise, books, medical
records, computers and desktop equipment, wall and ceiling mounted TVs and monitors, file
cabinets, kitchen, machine shop or other specialty equipment, industrial chemicals or
hazardous materials, museum artifacts, and collectibles.
1.1 NON STRUCTURAL DAMAGES

Historically, earthquake engineers have focused on the performance of structural systems

and ways to mitigate structural damage. As the earthquake engineering community moves
toward more comprehensive earthquake standards and expectations of improved seismic
performance, and as the public demands a higher level of earthquake protection, it is
important to understand the significance of non-structural damage.

Figure 1.3 Percentages of Non-structural damages and properties losses in 25 previous

earthquakes since 1971. (Takahashi & Shiohara, 2004)

Figure1.3 shows that the damages of earthquakes are more sever to the non-structural
component. Failures of non-structural components during an earthquake may result in
injuries or fatalities, cause costly property damage to buildings and their contents; and force
the closure of residential, medical and manufacturing facilities, businesses, and government
offices until appropriate repairs are completed. As stated previously, the largest investment
in most buildings is in the non-structural components and contents; the failures of these
elements may be both dangerous and costly. The potential consequences of earthquake
damage to non-structural components are typically divided into three types of risk:
Life Safety (LS)
Property Loss (PL)
Functional Loss (FL)
1.1.1 EXAMPLES OF EARTHQUAKES NON-STRUCTURAL DAMAGES

These photos have been taken from the following references as well as from another
recourses like google and Wikipedia. (Perry et al., 2010) (Fierro & Freeman, 1994)
(Murty, Goswami, Vijayanarayanan, Kumar, & Mehta, 2012) (Reitherman, 2009)

Broken glasses in the Kitchen

Inside the Houses

Furniture overturned throwing outside the contents.

In shops and departmental stores, many liquor and bottles broken

Extremely dangerous Shattered glasses

Water Heaters Tip fall Easily During Earthquakes.

Significance: Life Safety

If a ten-rupee flowerpot, not fastened well to the building, falls on someones head, it can be
a killer.

Damage to ceilings
1.2 MITIGATIONS MEASURES TO REDUCE THE RISKS OF NON-
STRUCTURAL DAMAGES

Removal

A hazardous material that could be spilled, could be stored perfectly well

outside the premises
One solution would be stronger fastening or the use of stronger supports,
But the most effective solution would be removal and replacement

Relocation

A very heavy object on top of a shelf could fall and seriously injure someone.
If it is relocated to a floor-level shelf it would not represent any danger to
human lives or to property.

Store large, heavy or fragile objects on lower shelves or in low closed

cabinets.
 Anchorage

Restricted Mobilization

It does not matter if the cylinders shift as long as they do not fall and break
their valves. Sometimes back-up power generators are mounted on springs
to reduce the noise and vibrations when they are working, but these
springs would amplify ground motion.
 Flexible Couplings

The use of flexible piping in critical areas such as between buildings and
equipment helps to prevent breakage.

Providing Sufficient Supports For The Ceiling. (Perry et al., 2010)

 Modification

Rolls of transparent adhesive plastic may be used to cover the inside

surfaces and prevent them from shattering and threatening those inside.

1.3 CODES PROVISIONS TO LIMIT THE DAMAGE CRITERIA OF NON-

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS.

Eurocode 8

The design provisions in Eurocode 8 take into account ground motion,

structural amplification, soil factor, and self-weight, flexibility and
importance of the non-structural element. This code requires very important
and /or dangerous nonstructural elements to be analyzed by making a realistic
model of the relevant structures and using floor response spectra. (Bisch et al.,
2012) For other elements that may cause risks to persons, or affect the main
structures or services of critical facilities be verified to resist design seismic
load, Fa , as follows:
Where,
a = importance factor which ranges from 1.5 for important and/or
hazardous elements to 1.0 for all other elements
Wa = weight of the element
ag = design ground acceleration
g = acceleration of gravity
Ta = fundamental period of the non-structural element
T1 = fundamental period of the building in the relevant direction
z = height of the non-structural element above the base of the building
H = total height of the building
S = soil factor
qa = behavior factor for non-structural elements equal to either 1.0 or 2.0
depending on their behavior during earthquake shaking. For example,
behavior factor for cantilever parapets or ornamentation, signs and
billboards, chimneys, and tanks is assigned as 1.0 while that for exterior
and interior walls, partitions and facades, anchorage elements for false
ceilings and light fixtures is assigned as 2.0.

Equation (2) takes into account the relative flexibility of non-structural

element as compared to that of its supporting structure. Since the non-
structural elements are generally rigid as compared to the supporting
structures, that is, T1 /Ta 0.0, Equation (2) can be approximated as:-
 That is, for ground storey (z = 0.0) input acceleration is same as the peak
ground acceleration.

And for the non-structural element attached at the roof (z = H) the input
acceleration is 2.5 times the ground acceleration. Flexible non-structural
elements are subjected to larger acceleration than the rigid elements.

International Building Code (IBC 2003)

International Building Code 2003 recommends that the nonstructural

element should be designed to satisfy both seismic force and seismic
relative displacement requirements. The design seismic force is defined
by the following equations:

Where,
SDS = spectral acceleration at short period = (2/3)SMS; 0.4SDS
represents the peak ground acceleration.
SMS = mapped considered earthquake spectral response acceleration for
short periods adjusted for site class effect.
Rp = component response modification factor which varies between1.5
to 5.0.
Ip = importance factor of the component that ranges from 1.0 for typical
components in normal service to 1.5 for components containing
hazardous substances.
z = height of point of attachment of component with respect to the base.
For components at or below the base z shall be taken as 0.0
h = average roof height of the structure with respect to the base Wp =
weight of the component
ap = component amplification factor to account for flexibility of the non-
structural element. ap = 1.0 is assigned for equipment generally regarded
as rigid (fundamental period < 0.06 s) and rigidly attached, ap = 2.5 is
for equipment generally regarded as flexible (fundamental period > 0.06
s) and flexibly attached.

Equation (8) is recommended to compute design seismic force assuming

that input acceleration at the ground floor is equal to the peak ground
acceleration (0.4SDS) and that at the roof of the building is equal to three
times the peak ground acceleration, that is, 1.2SDS. In the intermediate
floors input acceleration varies linearly between 0.4SDS to 1.2SDS. The
force, Fp, shall be considered acting independently on the two
orthogonal directions in combination with service loads associated with
the non-structural element. (Mondal & Jain, 2005)
 REFERENCES

Bisch, P., Carvalho, E., Degee, H., Fajfar, P., Fardis, M., Franchin, P., . . . Plumier, A. (2012).
Eurocode 8: seismic design of buildings worked examples. Joint Research Centre
European Union, Luxembourg Google Scholar.

Fierro, E. A., & Freeman, S. A. (1994). Reducing the risks of nonstructural earthquake
damage: a practical guide: DIANE Publishing.

Mondal, G., & Jain, S. K. (2005). Design of non-structural elements for buildings: A review
of codal provisions. Indian concrete journal, 79(8), 22-28.

Murty, C., Goswami, R., Vijayanarayanan, A., Kumar, R. P., & Mehta, V. V. (2012). Earthquake
Protection of Non-Structural Elements in Buildings.

Perry, C., Phipps, M., & Hortacsu, A. (2010). Reducing the Risks of Nonstructural Earthquake
Damage Improving the Seismic Performance of Existing Buildings and Other
Structures (pp. 674-685).

Reitherman, R. (2009). Nonstructural earthquake damage. Construction of University for

Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE).

Takahashi, N., & Shiohara, H. (2004). Life cycle economic loss due to seismic damage of
nonstructural elements. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 13th World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering (CD).