• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.253-263
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• 2023

Non-structural elements, such as equipment, are typically affixed to a building's floor or ceiling and move in tandem with the structure during an earthquake. Seismic forces acting upon non-structural elements traverse the ground and the building's structure. Considering this seismic load transmission mechanism, it becomes imperative to account for the interactions between soil, structure, and equipment, establishing seismic design procedures accordingly. In this study, a Soil-Structure-Equipment Interaction (SSEI) model is developed. Through seismic response analysis using this model, how the presence or absence of SSEI impacts equipment behavior is examined. Neglecting the SSEI aspect when assessing equipment responses results in an overly conservative evaluation of its seismic response. This emphasizes the necessity of proposing an analytical model and design methodology that adequately incorporate the interaction effect. Doing so enables the calculation of rational seismic forces and facilitates the seismic design of non-structural elements.