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SUMMARYThe maintenance of integrity and functionality of nonstructural components during earthquake excitations is of paramount importance since mechanical failure of those systems can have dramatic consequences in terms of property damage and life safety of the buildings' occupants. This paper explores the dynamic response of nonstructural elements attached on multistory buildings with well-established floor diaphragm action. Depending on the type of support conditions, seismic response of nonstructural components may be controlled either by acceleration or displacement: Nonstructural components that are subjected to uniform support excitation are controlled primarily by the absolute spectral acceleration developing at their point of attachment on the supporting building. On the contrary, seismic response of multiply supported nonstructural components depends primarily on the relative displacements between successive support points that are imposed by the supporting building during lateral sway. These findings are illustrated from the analytical formulation and its solution through time history analysis of the governing dynamic equation of motion of the primary and secondary components of a system modeled using finite elements. The model encompasses the assembly of a multistory building along with a multiply supported gas pipeline network. It is shown that the dependence of the seismic response of nonstructural components may be linked to the deformed shape of the supporting building at the state of its maximum lateral roof displacement, thereby enabling the definition of design procedures for these systems.

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