Seismic design of non-structural components mounted on irregular reinforced concrete buildings

The seismic response of non-structural components (NSCs) attached to irregular reinforced concrete (RC) multi-storey buildings is underestimated by current European design provisions. This paper presents a new design model for NSCs, accounting for the effect of torsion and seismic capacity of an irregular RC primary structure (P-structure). The proposed model is a modification of the current Eurocode 8 (EC8) model for the acceleration amplification factor of NSCs. It is based on the results of some 5000 nonlinear dynamic finite element analyses conducted on thirty-three building cases. The finite element analyses covered a wide range of parameters including plan layout, seismic capacity, fundamental vibration period, total height, floor rotation, ground type and eccentricity ratio. The proposed model has been demonstrated to be an improvement over EC8 model, especially for NSCs mounted on the flexible side and in tune with the fundamental vibration period of a P-structure.