Preliminary Results in the Design and Testing of Earthquake-Resistant School Furniture

This study illustrates the development of innovative solutions for school furniture designed to protect children and teachers in school buildings that cannot guarantee sufficient level of safety in case of seismic events. Attention is given to school desks and shelving units, the former having as objective the protection against falling debris from the ceilings, the latter the protection against damages and overturning of partition walls. In the past, school desks were the focus of seismic designs resulting in expensive and heavy solutions that, for these reasons, have not found practical application. Shelving units, on the other hand, did not receive special attention in their seismic design, other than a stronger connection to the walls. However, partition walls play a very important role during a seismic event due to the different interaction with the structure that can lead to anticipated damages and danger for people, even for moderate seismic events. In this article briefly presents the initial structural concept, preliminary numerical analyses, the preparation of full-scale prototypes, and the execution of experimental tests to simulate extreme loading conditions following structural collapse. It is concluded that very encouraging structural performances against extreme loading conditions and impacts can be achieved using products that are economically affordable with no constraints in their every-day use.