Case Studies on the Seismic Protection of Equipment in Essential Buildings

This paper summarizes the initial developments of a research program that is underway to evaluate the efficacy of passive settings to seismically protect sets and pieces of equipment of essential facilities. Specifically, this paper presents case studies based on detailed numerical analysis using models that were validated with available experimental data. The case studies confirmed that: 1) amplification of accelerations in the upper floors of fixed base buildings strongly depends on the modal characteristics of the building and are independent of the type of ground motion; 2) on a base isolated building, the responses of equipment with relatively short fundamental period depend on the frequency content of the ground motions; in contrast, the responses of equipment with relatively long fundamental period depend on the dynamic properties of the base isolated building; 3) acceleration responses of top floors on stiff fixed base buildings suggest potential tuning of equipment in a narrow period band, near the fundamental period of the building. The latter observation suggest potential for reduction of acceleration responses on roof (or upper floors) equipment by lengthening the fundamental period of the piece of equipment to detune the equipment from the resonant period of the building; 4) the benefits of seismic isolation and damping reducing significantly the seismic responses of equipment at different floor levels on a fixed base building. 1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Howard University, Washington DC, 20059, (202) 806-6580, [email protected], [email protected] Marin-Artieda CC. Case studies on the seismic protection of equipment in essential buildings. Proceedings of the 10th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Anchorage, AK, 2014. Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering Frontiers of Earthquake Engineering July 21-25, 2014 Anchorage, Alaska 10NCEE Case Studies on the Seismic Protection of Equipment in Essential Buildings C. C. Marin-Artieda1