Development and validation of European guidelines for seismic qualification of post-installed anchors

This paper presents the technical background for seismic qualification procedures for post-installed anchors in the European Technical Approval Guideline (ETAG 001) seismic annex issued in 2013. We discuss requirements for a comprehensive guideline and reference supporting research. Numerical studies to generate new simulated seismic protocols for anchors are summarized with a focus on their application to Europe. To reduce the time and cost of anchor product qualification testing, while fulfilling the requirement of European building codes to assess two performance categories, we combine the results of our numerical studies to generate novel testing protocols that allow for the assessment of anchor behavior at multiple levels in a unified protocol. Validation tests demonstrate that the unified protocol results in anchor performance comparable with that achieved in multiple, single-performance-level tests.