A Shake Table Testing Campaign of Electrical Cabinets

Non-structural elements such as electrical cabinets play a key role in determining the seismic performance of buildings. Seismic qualification shake table testing of non-structural elements is a relatively simple way to evaluate their expected seismic performance. This paper presents a shake table testing campaign performed on several electrical cabinet specimens using the 6DLAB laboratories at the EUCENTRE Foundation located in Pavia, Italy. These shake table tests were performed as part of the research project Creazione di un Ambiente Domestico Sicuro (CADS). The physical properties of all the tested electrical cabinet archetypes varied considerably including: base-mounted electrical cabinets, wall-mounted electrical cabinets, electrical cabinets with different attachment strengths, and electrical cabinets with different framing structure strengths. The shake table tests were carried out using two seismic testing protocols, one of which is commonly used for the seismic qualification of non-structural elements, whereas the second one was proposed within the scope of the CADS Project. The performance of selected electrical cabinet archetypes during the shake table tests are presented and discussed in this paper.