Damage assessment through structural identification of a three‐story large‐scale precast concrete structure

This paper investigates the damage assessment of a three‐story half‐scale precast concrete building resembling a parking garage through structural identification. The structure was tested under earthquake‐type loading on the NEES large high‐performance outdoor shake table at the University of California San Diego in 2008. The tests provide a unique opportunity to capture the dynamic performance of precast concrete structures built under realistic boundary conditions. The effective modal parameters of the structure at different damage states have been identified from white‐noise and scaled earthquake test data with the assumption that the structure responded in a quasi‐linear manner. Modal identification has been performed using the deterministic‐stochastic subspace identification method based on the measured input–output data. The changes in the identified modal parameters are correlated to the observed damage. In general, the natural frequencies decrease, and the damping ratios increase as the structure is exposed to larger base excitations, indicating loss of stiffness, development/propagation of cracks, and failure in joint connections. The analysis of the modal rotations and curvatures allowed the localization of shear and flexural damages respectively and the checking of the effectiveness of repair actions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coupled shear‐bending formulation for seismic analysis of stacked wood shear wall systems

A summary of the development of a new coupled shear‐bending model for analysis of stacked wood shear walls and multi‐story wood‐frame buildings is presented in this paper. The model focuses on dynamic response of light‐frame wood structures under seismic excitation. The formulation is intended to provide a more versatile option than present pure shear models in that the new model is capable of accurately capturing the overall lateral response of each story diaphragm and separates the inter‐story shear deformation and the deformation associated with rotation of the diaphragm due to rod elongation, which is an analogue to the bending deformation in an Euler–Bernoulli beam model. Modeling the coupling of bending and shear deformation is shown to provide more accurate representation of stacked shear wall system behavior than a pure shear model, particularly for the upper stories in the assembly. The formulation is coupled with the newly developed evolutionary parameter hysteretic model for wood shear walls. Existing data from a shake table test of an isolated three‐story wood shear wall were used to verify the accuracy of the model prediction. The numerical results agreed very well with shake table test measurements. The influence of a continuous rod hold‐down system on the dynamic behavior of the three‐story stacked wood shear wall was also successfully simulated. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shake‐table tests of a reinforced concrete frame designed following modern codes: seismic performance and damage evaluation

This paper presents shake‐table tests conducted on a two‐fifths‐scale reinforced concrete frame representing a conventional construction design under current building code provisions in the Mediterranean area. The structure was subjected to a sequence of dynamic tests including free vibrations and four seismic simulations in which a historical ground motion record was scaled to levels of increasing intensity until collapse. Each seismic simulation was associated with a different level of seismic hazard, representing very frequent, frequent, rare and very rare earthquakes. The structure remained basically undamaged and within the inter‐story drift limits of the ‘immediate occupancy’ performance level for the very frequent and frequent earthquakes. For the rare earthquake, the specimen sustained significant damage with chord rotations of up to 28% of its ultimate capacity and approached the upper bound limit of inter‐story drift associated with ‘life safety’. The specimen collapsed at the beginning of the ‘very rare’ seismic simulation. Besides summarizing the experimental program, this paper evaluates the damage quantitatively at the global and local levels in terms of chord rotation and other damage indexes, together with the energy dissipation demands for each level of seismic hazard. Further, the ratios of column‐to‐beam moment capacity recommended by Eurocode 8 and ACI‐318 to guarantee the formation of a strong column‐weak beam mechanism are examined. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic FE simulation of four‐story steel frame modeled by solid elements and its validation using results of full‐scale shake‐table test

Dynamic finite element analyses of a four‐story steel building frame modeled as a fine mesh of solid elements are performed using E‐Simulator, which is a parallel finite element analysis software package for precisely simulating collapse behaviors of civil and building structures. E‐Simulator is under development at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Japan. A full‐scale shake‐table test for a four‐story frame was conducted using E‐Defense at NIED, which is the largest shaking table in the world. A mesh of the entire structure of a four‐story frame with approximately 19 million degrees of freedom is constructed using solid elements. The density of the mesh is determined by referring to the results of elastic–plastic buckling analyses of a column of the frame using meshes of different densities. Therefore, the analysis model of the frame is well verified. Seismic response analyses under 60, 100, and 115% excitations of the JR Takatori record of the 1995 Hyogoken‐Nanbu earthquake are performed. Note that the simulation does not reproduce the collapse under the 100% excitation of the Takatori record in the E‐Defense test. Therefore, simulations for the 115% case are also performed. The results obtained by E‐Simulator are compared with those obtained by the E‐Defense full‐scale test in order to validate the results obtained by E‐Simulator. The shear forces and interstory drift angles of the first story obtained by the simulation and the test are in good agreement. Both the response of the entire frame and the local deformation as a result of elastic–plastic buckling are simulated simultaneously using E‐Simulator. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shake‐table tests of a three‐story reinforced concrete frame with masonry infill walls

This paper presents the shake‐table tests of a 2/3‐scale, three‐story, two‐bay, reinforced concrete frame infilled with unreinforced masonry walls. The specimen is representative of the construction practice in California in the 1920s. The reinforced concrete frame had nonductile reinforcement details and it was infilled with solid masonry walls in one bay and infill walls with window openings in the other bay. The structure was subjected to a sequence of dynamic tests including white‐noise base excitations and 14 scaled historical earthquake ground motion records of increasing intensity. The performance of the structure was satisfactory considering the seismic loads it was subjected to. The paper summarizes the design of the specimen and the major findings from the shake‐table tests, including the dynamic response, the load resistance, the evolution of damage, and the final failure mechanism. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐resolution seismic monitoring of instrumented buildings using a model‐based state observer

This paper proposes a model‐based state observer to perform high‐definition response estimation in partially instrumented building structures. The proposed estimator is verified in a simulated five‐story shear‐building structure and validated using measurements from a seven‐story reinforced concrete building slice tested at the NEES‐University of California at San Diego shake table. In both cases the proposed estimator yielded satisfactory results by estimating the time history of shear forces, bending moments, displacements, and strains at various points/sections of interest. The proposed algorithm can be used in instrumented buildings for various practical applications such as post‐earthquake damage assessment, structural control, and building code calibration. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shake‐table test performance of an inertial force‐limiting floor anchorage system

A new floor connecting system developed for low‐damage seismic‐resistant building structures is described herein. The system, termed Inertial Force‐Limiting Floor Anchorage System (IFAS), is intended to limit the lateral forces in buildings during an earthquake. This objective is accomplished by providing limited‐strength deformable connections between the floor system and the primary elements of the lateral force‐resisting system. The connections transform the seismic demands from inertial forces into relative displacements between the floors and lateral force‐resisting system. This paper presents the IFAS performance in a shake‐table testing program that provides a direct comparison with an equivalent conventional rigidly anchored‐floor structure. The test structure is a half‐scale, 4‐story reinforced concrete flat‐plate shear wall structure. Precast hybrid rocking walls and special precast columns were used for test repeatability in a 22‐input strong ground‐motion sequence. The structure was purposely designed with an eccentric wall layout to examine the performance of the system in coupled translational‐torsional response. The test results indicated a seismic demand reduction in the lateral force‐resisting system of the IFAS structure relative to the conventional structure, including reduced shear wall base rotation, shear wall and column inter‐story drift, and, in some cases, floor accelerations. These results indicate the potential for the IFAS to minimize damage to the primary structural and non‐structural components during earthquakes.     

Optimal cost‐effective topology of column bearings for reducing vertical acceleration demands in multistory base‐isolated buildings

Base‐isolation is regarded as one of the most effective methods for protecting the structural and nonstructural building elements from design level horizontal earthquake ground shaking. However, base‐isolation as currently practiced does not offer unlimited protection for these buildings, especially when the ground shaking includes a strong vertical component. The vulnerability of nonstructural systems in a base‐isolated building was made evident during recent shake table testing of a full‐scale five‐story base‐isolated steel moment frame where nonstructural system damage was observed following tests including vertical excitation. Past research efforts have attempted to achieve 3D isolation of buildings and nuclear structures by concentrating both the horizontal and vertical flexibility at the base of the building that are either quite limited or not economically viable. An approach whereby the vertical flexibility is distributed up the height of the building superstructure to passively reduce vertical acceleration demands in base‐isolated buildings is presented. The vertical flexibility is achieved by placing laterally restrained elastomeric ‘column’ bearings at one or more floor levels along the height of the building. To broadly investigate the efficacy of the vertically distributed flexibility concept and the trade‐off between mitigation and cost, a multi‐objective optimization study was conducted considering 3‐story, 9‐story, and 20‐story archetype buildings that aimed to minimize the median peak vertical floor acceleration demands and to minimize the direct cost of column bearings. Based on the results of the optimization study, a practical rule for determining the number of levels and locations of column bearings is proposed and evaluated. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic design and hybrid tests of a full‐scale three‐story buckling‐restrained braced frame using welded end connections and thin profile

A series of hybrid and cyclic loading tests were conducted on a three‐story single‐bay full‐scale buckling‐restrained braced frame (BRBF) at the Taiwan National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in 2010. Six buckling‐restrained braces (BRBs) including two thin BRBs and four end‐slotted BRBs, all using welded end connection details, were installed in the frame specimen. The BRBF was designed to sustain a design basis earthquake in Los Angeles. In the first hybrid test, the maximum inter‐story drift reached nearly 0.030 rad in the second story and one of the thin BRBs in the first story locally bulged and fractured subsequently before the test ended. After replacing the BRBs in the first story with a new pair, a second hybrid test with the same but reversed direction ground motion was applied. The maximum inter‐story drifts reached more than 0.030 rad and some cracks were found on the gusset welds in the second story. The frame responses were satisfactorily predicted by both OpenSees and PISA3D analytical models. The cyclic loading test with triangular lateral force distribution was conducted right after the second hybrid test. The maximum inter‐story drift reached 0.032, 0.031, and 0.008 rad for the first to the third story, respectively. This paper then presents the findings on the local bulging failure of the steel casing by using cyclic test results of two thin BRB specimens. It is found that the steel casing bulging resistance can be computed from an equivalent beam model constructed from the steel core plate width and restraining concrete thickness. This paper concludes with the recommendations on the seismic design of thin BRB steel casings against local bulging failure. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ground motion scaling methods for linear‐elastic structures: an integrated experimental and analytical investigation

The task of selecting and scaling an appropriate set of ground motion records is one of the most important challenges facing practitioners in conducting dynamic response history analyses for seismic design and risk assessment. This paper describes an integrated experimental and analytical evaluation of selected ground motion scaling methods for linear‐elastic building frame structures. The experimental study is based on the shake table testing of small‐scale frame models with four different fundamental periods under ground motion sets that have been scaled using different methods. The test results are then analytically extended to a wider range of structural properties to assess the effectiveness of the scaling methods in reducing the dispersion and increasing the accuracy in the seismic displacement demands of linear‐elastic structures, also considering biased selection of ground motion subsets. For scaling methods that are based on a design estimate of the fundamental period of the structure, effects of possible errors in the estimated period are investigated. The results show that a significant reduction in the effectiveness of these scaling methods can occur if the fundamental period is not estimated with reasonable certainty. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic characteristics and seismic behavior of prefabricated steel stairs in a full‐scale five‐story building shake table test program

This paper investigates the dynamic characteristics and seismic behavior of prefabricated steel stairs in a full‐scale five‐story building shake table test program. The test building was subjected to a suite of earthquake input motions and low‐amplitude white noise base excitations first, while the building was isolated at its base, and subsequently while it was fixed to the shake table platen. This paper presents the modal characteristics of the stairs identified using the data recorded from white noise base excitation tests as well as the physical and measured responses of the stairs from the earthquake tests. The observed damage to the stairs is categorized into three distinct damage states and is correlated with the interstory drift demands of the building. These shake table tests highlight the seismic vulnerability of modern designed stair systems and in particular identifies as a key research need the importance of improving the deformability of flight‐to‐building connections. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A study on the seismic performance of steel‐reinforced concrete frame‐concrete core wall high‐rise mixed structure by large‐scale shaking table tests and numerical simulations

This paper reports a study for the seismic performance of one large‐scaled (1/15) model of 30‐story steel‐reinforced concrete frame‐concrete core wall mixed structure. The study was implemented by both shaking table tests, in which the similarity ratio for lateral and gravitational accelerations was kept to 1:1, and numerical nonlinear dynamic analysis. The test observations presented herein include story displacement, interstory drift, natural vibration periods, and final failure mode. The numerical analysis was performed to simulate the shaking table test procedure, and the numerically obtained responses were verified by the test results. On the basis of the numerical results, the progressions of structural stiffness, base shear, and overturning moment were investigated, and the distributions of base shear and overturning moment between frame and core wall were also discussed. The test demonstrates the seismic performance of the steel‐reinforced concrete frame‐core wall mixed structure and reveals the potential overturning failure mode for high rise structures. The nonlinear analysis results indicate that the peripheral frames could take more shear forces after core wall damaged under severe earthquakes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shake table test and numerical study of self‐centering steel frame with SMA braces

Given their excellent self‐centering and energy‐dissipating capabilities, superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) become an emerging structural material in the field of earthquake engineering. This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on a scaled self‐centering steel frame with novel SMA braces (SMAB), which utilize superelastic Ni–Ti wires. The braces were fabricated and cyclically characterized before their installation in a two‐story one‐bay steel frame. The equivalent viscous damping ratio and ‘post‐yield’ stiffness ratio of the tested braces are around 5% and 0.15, respectively. In particular, the frame was seismically designed with nearly all pin connections, including the pinned column bases. To assess the seismic performance of the SMA braced frame (SMABF), a series of shake table tests were conducted, in which the SMABF was subjected to ground motions with incremental seismic intensity levels. No repair or replacement of structural members was performed during the entire series of tests. Experimental results showed that the SMAB could withstand several strong earthquakes with very limited capacity degradation. Thanks to the self‐centering capacity and pin‐connection design, the steel frame was subjected to limited damage and zero residual deformation even if the peak interstory drift ratio exceeded 2%. Good agreement was found between the experimental results and numerical simulations. The current study validates the prospect of using SMAB as a standalone seismic‐resisting component in critical building structures when high seismic performance or earthquake resilience is desirable under moderate and strong earthquakes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shaking‐table tests of a full‐scale single‐story masonry veneer wood‐frame structure

This paper presents the findings of shaking‐table experiments conducted to examine the seismic performance of a full‐scale, one‐story, wood‐framed structure with masonry veneer. The structure was designed and constructed in accordance with current U.S. code provisions. The veneer was attached to the wood backing with two kinds of metal anchors, corrugated ties fastened with 8d nails and rigid ties fastened with #8 screws. The tests have shown that the use of nails to fasten veneer anchors to the wood studs is highly unreliable due to the high variation of the nail extraction capacity, which can be influenced by the moisture content of the wood. Other than this, both the wood frame and the masonry veneer performed well under severe ground motions far exceeding a design level earthquake for Seismic Design Category D. Good performance was observed for the rigid veneer ties, which were attached to the wood studs with screws. The results have shown that the veneer walls parallel to the direction of shaking helped to restrain the motion of the wood structure and therefore should not be simply treated as added mass. The detailing of wood roof diaphragms requires special attention in consideration of the out‐of‐plane inertia force of the veneer that can be transmitted through the top plate of the wood‐stud wall to the rim joist. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shake table testing of an elevator system in a full‐scale five‐story building

This paper investigates the seismic performance of a functional traction elevator as part of a full‐scale five‐story building shake table test program. The test building was subjected to a suite of earthquake input motions of increasing intensity, first while the building was isolated at its base and subsequently while it was fixed to the shake table platen. In addition, low‐amplitude white noise base excitation tests were conducted while the elevator system was placed in three different configurations, namely, by varying the vertical location of its cabin and counterweight, to study the acceleration amplifications of the elevator components due to dynamic excitations. During the earthquake tests, detailed observation of the physical damage and operability of the elevator as well as its measured response are reported. Although the cabin and counterweight sustained large accelerations because of impact during these tests, the use of well‐restrained guide shoes demonstrated its effectiveness in preventing the cabin and counterweight from derailment during high‐intensity earthquake shaking. However, differential displacements induced by the building imposed undesirable distortion of the elevator components and their surrounding support structure, which caused damage and inoperability of the elevator doors. It is recommended that these aspects be explicitly considered in elevator seismic design. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computational simulation of slab vibration and horizontal‐vertical coupling in a full‐scale test bed subjected to 3D shaking at E‐Defense

This paper focuses on slab vibration and a horizontal‐vertical coupling effect observed in a full‐scale 5‐story moment frame test bed building in 2 configurations: isolated with a hybrid combination of lead‐rubber bearings and cross‐linear (rolling) bearings, and fixed at the base. Median peak slab vibrations were amplified—relative to the peak vertical shake table accelerations—by factors ranging from 2 at the second floor to 7 at the roof, and horizontal floor accelerations were significantly amplified during 3D (combined horizontal and vertical) motions compared with 2D (horizontal only) motions of comparable input intensity. The experimentally observed slab accelerations and the horizontal‐vertical coupling effect were simulated through a 3D model of the specimen using standard software and modeling assumptions. The floor system was modeled with frame elements for beams/girders and shell elements for floor slabs; the insertion point method with end joint offsets was used to represent the floor system composite behavior, and floor mass was finely distributed through element discretization. The coupling behavior was partially attributed to the asymmetry of the building that was intensified by asymmetrically configured supplemental mass at the roof. Horizontal‐vertical coupled modes were identified through modal analysis and verified with evaluation of floor spectral peaks.     

Shake‐table experiment on reinforced concrete structure containing masonry infill wall

A hypothetical 5‐storey prototype structure with reinforced concrete (RC) frame and unreinforced masonry (URM) wall is considered. The paper focuses on a shake‐table experiment conducted on a substructure of this prototype consisting of the middle bays of its first storey. A test structure is constructed to represent the selected substructure and the relationship between demand parameters of the test structure and those of the prototype structure is established using computational modelling. The dynamic properties of the test structure are determined using a number of preliminary tests before performing the shake‐table experiments. Based on these tests and results obtained from computational modelling of the test structure, the test ground motions and the sequence of shakings are determined. The results of the shake‐table tests in terms of the global and local responses and the effects of the URM infill wall on the structural behaviour and the dynamic properties of the RC test structure are presented. Finally, the test results are compared to analytical ones obtained from further computational modelling of the test structure subjected to the measured shake‐table accelerations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid simulation testing of a self‐centering rocking steel braced frame system

The self‐centering rocking steel frame is a seismic force resisting system in which a gap is allowed to form between a concentrically braced steel frame and the foundation. Downward vertical force applied to the rocking frame by post‐tensioning acts to close the uplifting gap and thus produces a restoring force. A key feature of the system is replaceable energy‐dissipating devices that act as structural fuses by producing high initial system stiffness and then yielding to dissipate energy from the input loading and protect the remaining portions of the structure from damage. In this research, a series of large‐scale hybrid simulation tests were performed to investigate the seismic performance of the self‐centering rocking steel frame and in particular, the ability of the controlled rocking system to self‐center the entire building. The hybrid simulation experiments were conducted in conjunction with computational modules, one that simulated the destabilizing P‐Δ effect and another module that simulated the hysteretic behavior of the rest of the building including simple composite steel/concrete shear beam‐to‐column connections and partition walls. These tests complement a series of quasi‐static cyclic and dynamic shake table tests that have been conducted on this system in prior work. The hybrid simulation tests validated the expected seismic performance as the system was subjected to ground motions in excess of the maximum considered earthquake, produced virtually no residual drift after every ground motion, did not produce inelasticity in the steel frame or post‐tensioning, and concentrated the inelasticity in fuse elements that were easily replaced. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tall building performance‐based seismic design using SCEC broadband platform site‐specific ground motion simulations

The scarcity of strong ground motion records presents a challenge for making reliable performance assessments of tall buildings whose seismic design is controlled by large‐magnitude and close‐distance earthquakes. This challenge can be addressed using broadband ground‐motion simulation methods to generate records with site‐specific characteristics of large‐magnitude events. In this paper, simulated site‐specific earthquake seismograms, developed through a related project that was organized through the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Ground Motion Simulation Validation (GMSV) Technical Activity Group, are used for nonlinear response history analyses of two archetype tall buildings for sites in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino. The SCEC GMSV team created the seismograms using the Broadband Platform (BBP) simulations for five site‐specific earthquake scenarios. The two buildings are evaluated using nonlinear dynamic analyses under comparable record suites selected from the simulated BBP catalog and recorded motions from the NGA‐West database. The collapse risks and structural response demands (maximum story drift ratio, peak floor acceleration, and maximum story shear) under the BBP and NGA suites are compared. In general, this study finds that use of the BBP simulations resolves concerns about estimation biases in structural response analysis which are caused by ground motion scaling, unrealistic spectral shapes, and overconservative spectral variations. While there are remaining concerns that strong coherence in some kinematic fault rupture models may lead to an overestimation of velocity pulse effects in the BBP simulations, the simulations are shown to generally yield realistic pulse‐like features of near‐fault ground motion records.     

Seismic performance of wood‐frame houses in south‐western British Columbia

The seismic performance of conventional wood‐frame structures in south‐western British Columbia is analytically investigated through incremental dynamic analysis by utilizing available UBC‐SAWS models, which were calibrated based on experimental test results. To define an adequate target response spectrum that is consistent with information from national seismic hazard maps, record selection/scaling based on the conditional mean spectrum (CMS) is implemented. Furthermore, to reflect complex seismic hazard contributions from different earthquake sources (i.e. crustal events, interface events, and inslab events), we construct CMS for three earthquake types, and use them to select and scale an adequate set of ground motion records for the seismic performance evaluation. We focus on the impacts of adopting different record selection criteria and of using different shear‐wall types (Houses 1–4; in terms of seismic resistance, House 1>House 2>House 3>House 4) on the nonlinear structural response. The results indicate that the record selection procedures have significant influence on the probabilistic relationship between spectral acceleration at the fundamental vibration period and maximum inter‐story drift ratio, highlighting the importance of taking into account response spectral shapes in selecting and scaling ground motion records. Subjected to ground motions corresponding to the return period of 2500 years, House 1 is expected to experience very limited extent of damage; Houses 2 and 3 may be disturbed by minor damage; whereas House 4 may suffer from major damage occasionally. Finally, we develop statistical models of the maximum inter‐story drift ratio conditioned on a seismic intensity level for wood‐frame houses, which is useful for seismic vulnerability assessment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.