Preliminary results from concentrated impact tests on a school desk with life-saving function in case of earthquakes

This article presents the latest developments involving an innovative life-saving school desk, result of a multidisciplinary design process having as goal a limited increment of weight, dimensions, and costs as compared to conventional school desks, while significantly improving the capacity to resist static and dynamic loads, as those that could be experienced in case of seismic damages of the building. Specifically, this study reviews the structural concept behind the proposed school desks and illustrates a selection of some preliminary results of an experimental campaign in which the performances of full-scale prototypes were evaluated under impact loadings. Attention was given to the definition of a testing methodology that is an extension of current prescriptions for testing conventional school desk and that could be easily replicable in a structural engineering laboratory. The experimental outcomes were monitored using conventional contact sensors as well as computer-vision methodologies for displacement tracking, to gain insight into the response of the tested school desks under impact loadings.