Abstract
In recent years, a great number of earthquake disasters occurred in the world, and thousands of people were killed as a result of the collapse of the buildings. These events emphasize the importance of earthquake engineering research about how structures behave under seismic excitations. There are many analytical approaches for investigating the behavior of the structures under seismic loads. However, these analytical models involve the idealization and assumption of the structure’s behavior based on current theoretical knowledge. Experimental work provides an alternate means of analysis and extending the limits of the theoretical knowledge. In addition, the capabilities of these analytical models can only be validated by experimental work. To investigate the real behavior of the structures against earthquakes, several seismic test methods are used. Most popular methods are (1) real earthquake experiences, (2) in situ tests, (3) static tests (pushover analysis), (4) shake table tests, (5) pseudo-dynamic tests, and (6) centrifuge tests. 1 It is obvious that the shake table tests give exact behavior of the structures under the seismic loads if the real dynamic boundary conditions are simulated correctly. Hence, during the last decades many shake tables in different scales have been constructed and developed mainly in Japan, USA, and Europe.1,2 The shake tables are classified as small (smaller than 3 m × 3m ), medium (from 3 m × 3m to 9 m× 9m ) and large (greater than 9 m × 9 m) tables. 3 Large shake tables are valuable tools for understanding the behavior of full-scale structures under seismic loads, whereas they involve high construction and operating expenses. On the other hand, in order to simulate a real earthquake completely, a shake table should have to be capable of moving in three reference directions. But, multicomponent shake tables are too expensive and require special knowledge and experience for construction and operation. Hence, smaller-sized, unidirectional tables are more suitable for the small-scale model analysis and for the educational aims due to their low constructing and operating cost, especially in the developing countries.
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