Improvement of dynamic and seismic behaviour of cabinets through controlled deformation

In this paper the possibility to improve the dynamic and seismic response of cabinets that can exhibit rocking dynamics is investigated. The generic cabinet is modelled as an assembly of rigid components and can undergo a change of configuration. The scope of the research is to verify if the allowed deformation could protect the cabinet by preventing the overturning or reducing the amplitude of rocking oscillations. The control of the deformation is obtained by using linear visco-elastic devices, whose mechanical characteristics are at the base of the parametric analysis performed in the paper. An extensive parametric analysis is carried out by numerically integrating the equations of motion. The effectiveness of this protection method is analyzed by comparing the behaviour of rigid and deformable cabinets under one-sine pulse and seismic excitations. For the one-sine pulse excitation, the comparison is made with overturning spectra that provide the amplitude of the excitation able to overturn the cabinets versus its circular frequency. For the seismic excitation, the comparison is performed by using different registered earthquakes and comparing the maximum rocking angle reached during the motion. The results show that the ability of cabinets to change their configuration improves the dynamical and seismic performances compared to those of the equivalent rigid cabinets.