Construction stage effect on the dynamic characteristics of RC frame using operational modal analysis

Abstract

In this study, dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios of RC frame is determined for different construction stages using Operational Modal Analyses method under ambient vibration. Full scaled, one bay and one story RC frames are selected as an application for different construction stages such as plane, brick in-filled and brick in-filled with plaster. The RC frame is vibrated by natural excitations with small impact effects and the response signals are measured using sensitive accelerometers during ambient vibration tests. Measurement time-frequency span and effective mode number are determined by considering similar studies in literature. Sensitive seismic accelerometers are used to collect signals obtained from the experimental tests. To obtain experimental dynamic characteristics, output-only system identification technique is employed namely; Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique in the frequency domain. It is demonstrated that the ambient vibration measurements are enough to identify the most significant modes of RC frames.