Seismic demand and performance evaluation of non-structural elements in low-damage building system

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