NZSEE Seminars 2017 - New Zealand Geotechnical Society

Seminar on Assessment Objectives and Principles and Secondary Structural and Non-Structural Elements

The Seismic Assessment of Existing Buildings (the Guidelines) provides a technical basis for engineers to carry out seismic assessments of existing buildings within New Zealand. The Guidelines support seismic assessments for a range of purposes, including whether or not a building is earthquake-prone in terms of the Building Act and for property risk identification more generally.
An important aspect of the assessment process, is the specific need to consider the impact of parts of buildings on the building earthquake rating. Parts of a building include those elements that would be considered as secondary structural or non-structural in nature. However, not all secondary structural and non-structural elements are considered to impact on the earthquake rating. Engineers undertaking assessments of buildings must be able to identify which elements should be considered to have an impact and which elements do not need to be, noting that ‘parts’ for seismic assessment purposes have a narrower focus than in the more familiar NZS 1170.5 context.

This one-day seminar provides an overview of the objectives and principles within the Guidelines, with a focus on identifying which types of building element could pose a significant life safety hazard as set out in Part A of the Guidelines. Participants will then assess earthquake scores for a selection of Secondary Structural and Non-Structural (SSNS) elements such as stairs, precast concrete panels and glazing systems using Section C10 of the Guidelines. The last session of the seminar will be a Q&A forum on any aspect of the Guidelines.