Landmark Data Set from the Building Nonstructural Components and Systems (BNCS) Project

Abstract

A full-scale, five-story reinforced concrete building fully equipped with non-structural components and systems (NCSs) was tested to a near collapse condition on the large outdoor shake table at the University of California, San Diego in 2012. This landmark test program was intended to advance the understanding of the seismic behavior of NCSs installed in buildings, and for this reason it was named the Building Nonstructural Components and Systems (BNCS) project. The BNCS test specimen was monitored with digital still cameras, more than 80 video cameras, 500 analog sensors, and a global positioning system (GPS) and subjected to a suite of earthquake input motions of increasing intensity while in a base-isolated and fixed-base configuration. The resulting high-quality data set is now publicly available within the NEES repository (NEEShub; DOI: 10.4231/D38W38349). The goal of this paper is to outline the types of data available and provide a road map for navigating through it in an effort to support its future use by the community.