Story‐by‐story estimation of the stiffness parameters of laterally‐torsionally coupled buildings using forced or ambient vibration data: II. Application to experimental data

Abstract

SUMMARYHerein, an attempt is made to apply the method developed and verified in the companion paper (Part I) to physical data. To this end, stiffness parameters of the IASC‐ASCE test structure are identified using data from the experimental phase of the benchmark studies. The physical specimen is a quarter‐scale, four‐story, braced‐frame, steel structure. Ambient vibration and free vibration data induced by hammer strikes from various configurations of the structure are used to identify stiffness parameters of individual stories. These configurations had been created by removing various members from the test structure in an effort to mimic damage. Results indicate that the proposed method is successful in identifying even the minor changes (damage) introduced to the structure. An additional study on the method's sensitivity to structure's assumed mass distribution reveals that it is fairly robust to mass uncertainties. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.