Vibrations of the TAIPEI 101 skyscraper caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Japan

Abstract

The strong-motion recordings generated by the 11 March 2011, Tohoku, Japan earthquake recorded by the building seismic array in the TAIPEI 101, the second tallest building in the world, are more complicated than those at the free-field stations. Fundamental and higher-mode vibrations can be clearly seen on the spectra. The fundamental-mode frequency is about 0.15 Hz, which is the natural frequency of the skyscraper. Spectral ratios of ground accelerations at the building to those at a nearby borehole station increase from unity at the fifth floor underground to factors of 110 and 146, respectively, on the 74th and 90th floors above ground for the fundamental-mode vibrations. The frequency content of accelerograms, recorded on the fifth floor below ground from the great 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, appears mainly in a frequency band of 0.015–0.1 Hz, leading to a fact that the ground motions did not cause high excitation in the TAIPEI 101 skyscraper.