The equivalent static load for non-structural elements has a limitation in that the sloshing effect and the interaction between the fluid and the water tank cannot be considered. In this study, the equations to evaluate the impulse and convective components in the design codes and previous research were compared with the shaking table test results of a rectangular water tank with flexible wall panels. The conclusions of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) It was observed that the natural periods of the impulsive component according to ACI 350.3 were longer than system identification results. Thus, ACI 350.3 may underestimate the earthquake load in the case of water tanks with flexible walls. (2) In the case of water tanks with flexible walls, the side walls deform due to bending of the front and back walls. When such three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction was included, the natural period of the impulsive component became similar to the experimental results. (3) When a detailed finite element (FE) model of the water tank was unavailable, the assumption   could be used, resulting in a reasonably conservative design earthquake load.

Several water tanks installed in the building were damaged during the Gyeongju earthquake (2016) and the Pohang earthquake (2017). Since a water tank for fire protection is very important component, seismic safety should be ensured. In this study, an interaction between a water tank and a building was studied by the dynamic analysis of the RC building with the water tank. In case the water tank was installed on the roof of the RC building, it was confirmed that it did not significantly affect the response of the building. Based on the result, dynamic response characteristics of the water tank in the building were studied using two SDOF models represented dynamic behavior of the water tanks under earthquake. An earthquake time-history analysis was carried out with variables of aspect ratio of the tank, story of the building, and installed location in the building using three kinds of earthquakes.

Simple 3, 10, and 30-story buildings with a nonstructural element which is located at roof or near the middle of the building height are selected. Based on 2009 Korean Building Code, the seismic design force applied at the nonstructural element is evaluated. Response spectrum analysis is conducted with the design response acceleration spectrum of 2009 Korean Building Code and the analytical response is compared with the seismic design force from the Code. Furthermore, an artificial earthquake based on Korean design response acceleration spectrum and the 50% intensity of El Centro earthquake, which can be considered as the maximum future earthquake possibly occurring in Korea, are selected to conduct time history analysis. When the period of the nonstructural element is shorter than 0.06 second or longer than that of the 1st period of each building, the Code equations of seismic design force for nonstructural element seems to be appropriate. However, the period of the nonstructural element is close to the one of the building's higher mode periods including the 1st period, seismic force of the nonstructural element might exceed the Code specified seismic design force.

In this study, a seismic design methodology for a friction damper based on the story shear force of an elastic building structure is proposed. First, using two normalization methods for the slip-load of a friction damper, numerical analyses of various single-degree-of-freedom systems are performed. From those analyses, the effect of the slip-load and brace stiffness was investigated and the optimal stiffness ratio of the brace versus original structure was found. Second, from the numerical analysis for five multi-story building structures with different natural frequency and the number of story, reasonable decision method for the total number of installation floor, location of installation and distribution of slip-loads are drawn. In addition, an empirical equation on the optimal number of installation floor is proposed. Finally, the superiority of the proposed method compared to the existing design method is verified from the numerical analysis.