Experimentally Calibrated Numerical Modeling for Performance-Based Seismic Design of Low-Frequency Rocking Electrical Cabinets

In this paper, the performances of two electrical cabinet specimens during shake table tests are described in detail in terms of the observed damage and their measured peak transient responses. The measured responses of the specimens are then used to calibrate simplified numerical models of the two specimens. The calibrated numerical models are used to derive fragility functions to illustrate their usefulness in performance-based seismic design applications. The calibration process and the basic concept of the numerical models can be used for calibrating similar numerical models for other typologies of similar floor anchored non-structural elements that have a rocking failure mode.