On May 2012 two earthquakes occurred in Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) causing several damages to existing industrial precast structures. These damages were mainly due to inadequate connection systems and the main recorded failures were the loss of support of structural elements due to the sliding of friction connections. This paper aims at justifying some of these damages by investigating the response of a real industrial building, located in Mirandola (Modena, Italy) and seriously damaged after the second main shock. In this structure the main damages were significant rotations at the columns base and relative displacements in both beam-to-column and roof-to-beam connections. Nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed in the OpenSees program with the accelerograms of the second event and the experienced damage in the structure is justified. The defined frictional element is able to simulate the behavior of both beam-to-column and roof-to-beam connections. Moreover, the nonlinear dynamic analyses demonstrate the damage in the precast columns
