Evaluation of Seismic Performance of Suspended Ceiling Systems Using Dynamic Testing and Finite Element Analysis

Abstract eng:
In recent earthquakes, suspended ceilings have experienced widespread extensive damage. Such failure resulted in lifesafety hazard, blocking of egress, and financial losses due to damage and business interruption. To address such vulnerability, new and strict seismic design and installation requirements were introduced in the building codes staring with the UBC 1997. Starting in 2000’s, shake table testing of suspended ceiling systems have been undertaken by all major manufacturers in the US, followed by a recently-completed large scale testing in both the US and Japan to investigate the response of ceilings as part of the building environment. Independently, testing and evaluation of suspended ceilings have been underway by the authors in the past several years. This paper presents the results from static and cyclic testing of ceiling perimeter installation. The perimeter attachments are one of the key elements determining the overall system response. In addition, manufacturers have developed proprietary seismic clip attachments as substitute for the codeprescribed installation. The tests have been completed and the capacity data were used to assess the efficacy of the alternate connections and to correlate the member capacities with the demand computed from shake table testing of full-scale systems and with the prescriptive requirements of the building code.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket