Ricerc@Sapienza

Recent lessons from past earthquakes repeatedly showed the vulnerability of existing buildings and of non-structural
elements. In the past decades, efforts have mainly focused on improving the seismic performance of the structural
skeleton. Although buildings designed according to modern and recent seismic codes generally performed as expected
by securing the human life, the observed damage was often deemed too expensive to be repaired and stakeholders often

Post-earthquake damage reports have continuously highlighted the significant vulnerability of non-structural
elements to seismic events. Non-structural damage has severe impact in the building recovery, increasing the socio-
economic losses even for low intensity events. In the last few years, research efforts have focused on the
development of innovative non-structural solutions, to be combined with damage-resistant structural skeletons in
order to obtain an overall high-performance building. As part of a European Union (EU)-funded project, the

A physical model of a tensegrity columns is additively manufactured in a titanium alloy. After removing sacrificial supports, such a model is post-tensioned through suitable insertion of Spectra (R) cables. The wave dynamics of the examined system is first experimentally investigated by recording the motion through high-speed cameras assisted by a digital image correlation algorithm, which returns time-histories of the axial displacements of the bases of each prism of the column.