Virtual scene construction for seismic damage of building ceilings and furniture

Abstract

A valid seismic damage scene for indoor nonstructural components is critical for virtual earthquake safety drills which can teach occupants how to survive in earthquakes. A virtual scene construction method for the seismic damage of suspended ceilings and moveable furniture is proposed based on FEMA P-58 and a physics engine. First, a modeling framework is designed based on building information modeling (BIM) to create consistent structural and scene models for the subsequent structural time-history analysis (THA) and scene construction. Subsequently, FEMA P-58 is employed to determine the damage states of nonstructural components based on the results of the THA. Finally, the physical models on the movements of the damaged components are designed using a physics engine and are also validated through the experiments such as an existing shaking table test. Considering a six-story building as a case study, a virtual earthquake scene of the indoor nonstructural components is constructed and applied in an earthquake safety drill. The outcome of this study provides well-founded scenes of the seismic damage to indoor nonstructural components for performing virtual earthquake safety drills.