Rocking of freestanding objects: Theoretical and experimental comparisons

The methodical study of safeguard of artistic heritage and other devices subjected to earthquake and, in general, to time-dependent forces has considerably spreaded in the last years, thus increasing researchers' interest in problems concerning motions of rigid objects simply supported on a base plane. The behaviour of piece of equipments, statues, storage tanks, or even tall buildings has been in fact studied as that of rigid bodies with relation to different base excitations. In some cases, the possibility of influencing the quality of motion can be a strong tool to reduce vulnerability, like in the cases in which rocking motion is to be avoided and sliding motion is welcome. This paper focuses the attention on this last problem. This is the same large class of both non-structural and structural elements that can lose their functionality because of earthquake motions. The results of numerical modelling of sliding and rocking motion in presence of both different excitations and mechanical parameters are presented and compared with experimental data performed by the authors. The results developed are in good agreement with the laboratory tests, and this assures the reliability of both the analytical procedure and the determination of the parameters involved.