Full-Scale Structural and Nonstructural Building System Performance during Earthquakes: Part I – Specimen Description, Test Protocol, and Structural Response

Abstract

A landmark experimental program was conducted to advance the understanding of nonstructural system performance during earthquakes. The centerpiece of this effort involved shake table testing a full-scale five-story reinforced concrete building furnished with a broad variety of nonstructural components and systems (NCSs) including complete and operable egress, mechanical and electrical systems, facades, and architectural layouts. The building-NCS system was subjected to a suite of earthquake motions of increasing intensity, while base-isolated and then fixed at its base. In this paper, the major components of the test specimen, including the structure and its NCSs, the monitoring systems, and the seismic test protocol are described in detail. Important response and damage characteristics of the structure are also presented. A companion paper describes the damage observed for the various NCSs and correlates these observations with the structure's response.

Predominant period and equivalent viscous damping ratio identification for a full‐scale building shake table test

“…Periods of 2.0 and 3.15 s were the lowest and highest periods calculated for the BI building, as discussed later. These values were found using data from GPS stations on the foundation level and data from Temposonics displacement sensors attached to the actuators below the platen, and differ only slightly from values inferred from accelerometer data [26]. Note that the spectral displacements listed in Tables I and II were computed for the equivalent viscous damping ratios assumed in design of the building for the design earthquake: ζ = 12% for the BI configuration and ζ = 5% for the FB configuration.…”

“…For the BI configuration, the displacement response spectra for tests motions BI1, BI2, BI3, and BI5 were similar in the period range of interest. There were two additional motions that took the FB structure well into the inelastic range that are not considered in this paper [26,27]. Test motion BI4 had greater spectral displacements than those in test motions BI1, BI2, BI3, and BI5 over the entire period range of interest, but contrary to the spectral displacement trend in these three test motions, the spectral displacement of test motion BI4 generally decreases with an increase in period.…”

“…The almost 23-m tall building consisted of a cast-inplace RC moment frame to support the structure and resist lateral loading. Details about the test program and building design are found in Chen et al [26,27]. Among the NCSs installed in the building were partition walls laid out in various configurations on each floor, and an exterior façade composed of cold formed steel studs overlaid with gypsum board and finishing, which spanned from the bottom of the first floor to the top of the third floor.…”

Seismic analysis, design, and installation of nonstructural components and systems � background and recommendations for future work

“…This publication is available free of charge from: https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.GCR.17-917-44 Figure 6-3 Measured building response in the longitudinal direction: (a) peak floor accelerations during the base isolated tests; (b) peak interstory drift ratios during the base isolated tests; (c) peak floor accelerations during the fixed base tests; and (d) peak interstory drift ratios during the fixed base tests (Chen et al, 2015).…”

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

“…6 Similarly, extensive damage to NCSs in different facilities was reported after the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, 7 and even in some cases, the loss of human life had been attributed to falling ceiling boards. Chen et al 9 and Pantoli et al 10 reported on a series of 1D shaking experiments on a full-scale, 5-story reinforced concrete building, conducted at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) NEES site (NEES@UCSD). Recent Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) projects have focused on system-level response evaluation of NCSs on full-scale shake table experiments, to better understand their performance under seismic excitation.…”