Shake Table Research Articles

Shake table test on a five-story residential masonry building strengthened by engineered cementitious composites based on minimum disturbance

Multi-storey masonry structures are popular structural systems for residential buildings in China in the 1970 s, which need strengthening urgently due to poor seismic performance. To save construction time and achieve minimum disturbance, a single-sided engineered cementitious composites (ECC) strengthened method for masonry structures was proposed. To investigate the effectiveness of the strengthening method, two 1/4-scaled 5-storey masonry structures, including a reference unreinforced structure (US) model and a corresponding retrofitted structure (RS) model, were designed and tested by shake table tests. The comparisons between the US model and the RS model were analyzed in terms of the natural frequency, acceleration amplification factor, acceleration response, and storey drift response. The results show that the strengthening method can improve the seismic performance of the masonry structure. The connection method can ensure that the existing masonry walls and ECC layers work together. The initial natural frequency of the RS model is 1.3 times that of the US model. The maximum storey drift of the US model is 3.0 times that of the RS model at PGA = 0.550 g. To ensure the strengthening efficiency, the acceptable structural aspect ratio range for the strengthening method was suggested, and an improved strengthening method was proposed.

Energy-Based Simplified Damper Design Methodology for Seismic Torsional Vibration Control of Buildings with Experimental Verification

ABSTRACT An energy-based damper design methodology is presented to achieve equal displacement at the building edges for torsionally coupled existing new buildings. Considering ductile and non-ductile RC buildings ranging from simple to complex types involving vertical irregularities, the effectiveness of the proposed methodology is studied. Shake table tests are carried out on an L-shape small-scale building model with viscoelastic dampers. The torsional response is significantly reduced by designing the dampers as per the proposed methodology. These methodologies help the designer to achieve damping constants for multistory asymmetric plan buildings using design spreadsheets with a few iterations in the damper design.

High-Speed Videogrammetry with Mutually Guided Target Tracking under Occlusion for Masonry Building Structure Displacement on a Shaking Table

High-speed videogrammetric measurements are widely used on shaking tables. However, during progressive collapse experiments, the protective string used to ensure the safety of personnel and the shaking table, mandated by safety considerations, can partially occlude the structural model. To address the problem of inaccurate tracking of the ellipse targets in image sequences due to the partial occlusion, this paper proposes a novel mutually guided tracking method for the partial occlusion situations. Firstly, the strategy of loopback detection is proposed to eliminate the cumulative errors with the initial tracking model and to replace the initial results of the tracking with those from the loopback detection. Secondly, tiny offset compensation is used to solve the problem of deviations. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve single-point localization at the sub-millimeter level and interlayer localization at the millimeter level within partially occluded environments. It is important that the proposed method meets the requirements of experimental accuracy on shaking tables and ensures the safety of personnel and facilities.

Seismic Performance of a 1:4 Scale Two-Story Rammed Earth Model Reinforced with Steel Plates Tested on a Bi-Axial Shaking Table

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Latin American cities adopted earthen construction techniques from European colonizers. As a result, rammed earth (RE) buildings now occupy an important place in Latin America’s cultural heritage. However, earthquakes around the world have shown that unreinforced earthen constructions are highly vulnerable. For several years, researchers in northern South America have been proposing a technique that consists of installing confining steel plates (or wooden elements) on both sides of the RE walls to form a grid. This system has shown excellent performance in controlling seismic damage and increasing strength and ductility capacity. Although researchers have tested full-scale one- and two-story earthen walls under pseudo-static loading in the laboratory, and one- and two-story earthen walls at 1:1 and 1:2 scales on uniaxial and biaxial shaking tables, the behavior of a complete reinforced module (one- or two-story) on a shaking table has never been assessed. The present study presents the results of shaking table tests performed on two-story RE modules at 1:4 scale. The experimental data indicate that the retrofit system with confining steel plates was effective in reducing the seismic damage of earthen constructions. In addition, the comparison of the results of the 1:4 scale tests with the 1:2 and 1:1 scale tests previously conducted by the researchers shows that the acceleration levels of the equivalent prototypes are in the same order of magnitude for the three scales.

Experimental and numerical study on a high-rise building with transfer slab

To evaluate the seismic performance of a high-rise building with transfer slab, a scaled model with a ratio of 1:15 is fabricated and shake table tests are conducted to investigate the seismic damage of the scaled model, in which the frequent, fortification, rare, and extremely rare multidimensional seismic excitations for different design targets are considered. The experimental results are analyzed and discussed to compare and validate the numerical results, including peak acceleration and inter-story displacement response. Through the discussion of experimental and numerical results, a qualitative evaluation was conducted for the seismic performance of high-rise buildings with transfer slabs. Results show that the numerical results agree well with the experimental responses, which reveal that the design performance goals under different seismic excitations can be achieved. Note that the shear-wall structure above the transfer slab undergoes elastic-plastic behavior before the frame structure below the transfer slab, ensuring the safety of the bottom frame structure. The seismic performance of the prototype building was qualitatively evaluated under rare and extremely rare earthquakes, which provide reliable basis for structural safety of the high-rise building with transfer slab. The achievements also contribute to the design of high-rise buildings with transfer slab and ensure the safety of occupants and minimize damage in the event of earthquakes.

Effects of modeling assumptions on prediction of seismic demands of a single-story RC structure

This study investigates the seismic response of a single-story reinforced concrete (RC) structure subjected to strong ground motions. Effects of modeling assumptions used to idealize the reinforcement slip in beam-column joints and column footing are studied. For this purpose, the numerical model of a single-story, single-bay, three-dimensional asymmetric RC structure, tested on a shake table and its symmetric version, is analyzed. Two modeling approaches are considered to show the significance of rotation associated with the reinforcement slip. Bidirectional nonlinear time-history analyses are conducted using symmetric and asymmetric 3D models. In these analyses, 30 pairs of near-field ground motions, selected and scaled to match the target spectrum, are used. The findings indicate that the neglection of reinforcement slip in numerical model may result in an underestimation of almost 50% in story drift ratio demands.

Experimentally validated numerical analyses on the seismic responses of extra-large LNG storage structures

Extra-large liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tanks are comprised by a steel inner tank and an outer protective tank of prestressed reinforced concrete (PRC), both being very thin. These important lifeline infrastructures are prone to damage and even failure under earthquake during their service life. Convincing numerical simulation, verified by shake table tests, is a feasible tool to quantify the seismic responses and to mitigate the potential damage/failure of LNG storage structures. This work addresses systematically the three-dimensional finite element (FE) modeling, experimental validation and numerical simulations of such structures, with the soil–pile interaction of the foundation, the fluid–structure interaction of the inner tank and damage of the outer tank all properly accounted for. For the sake of computational efficiency with no loss of too much precision, the soil–pile interaction is described by the mass–damper–spring model, and the fluid–structure interaction by the mass–spring model with both the convective and impulsive components accounted for. Moreover, the nonlinear mechanical behavior of concrete is considered by the damaged-plasticity model regularized with the fracture energy. The concrete–steel interaction in PRC is practically dealt with by modifying the constitutive relations of concrete and steel rebars/tendons properly with the equilibrium and compatibility conditions accounted for. The FE modeling strategy is validated against the recently conducted benchmark shaking table test of a scaled extra-large LNG storage structure. The capability in capturing the overall dynamic responses, e.g., the hydrodynamic pressure and structural vibrations under seismic actions, etc., is sufficiently verified. Finally, the dynamic responses and structural reliability of an extra-large LNG storage tank under deterministic and stochastic seismic actions are numerically studied in details.

Evaluation of the effect of the vertical component of an earthquake on the seismic response of container cranes using the shake table test

In this study, the effect of the vertical component of earthquakes on the seismic response of a container crane was investigated by using the shake table test on a 1/20 scale container crane. The effect was investigated by comparing the seismic response of the container crane when subjected to the horizontal component of earthquakes versus the horizontal and vertical components of earthquakes. The seismic responses of the container crane were compared based on acceleration responses, displacements, and internal forces. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Vertical acceleration response increased when the vertical and horizontal components of earthquakes were used simultaneously. A maximum increase of 79% was observed for the vertical acceleration response at the trolley-boom girder. The horizontal acceleration response either increased or decreased. The maximum difference was 24% when the container crane was subjected to horizontal component earthquakes versus horizontal and vertical component earthquakes. (2) The horizontal displacements of the container crane increased or decreased under the simultaneous action of the horizontal and vertical components of the earthquakes. The maximum difference was 278% with regard to the derailment of the seaside legs. (3) The internal forces at the top of the lower legs were affected by adding the vertical component of the earthquakes. The maximum difference in the axial force response was 100%, while that of the bending moment was 24%. Therefore, the seismic response of container cranes should be analyzed with and without the vertical component of earthquakes to determine the most extreme case of the seismic response.

Shake table testing of a half-scale stone masonry building aggregate

Masonry aggregates have developed throughout city centres of Europe due to a centuries-long densification process that generally lacked consistent planning or engineering. Adjacent units are connected either through interlocking stones or a layer of mortar. Without interlocking stones, the connection between the units is weak, and an out of-phase response of the units can lead to separation and pounding. Modelling guidelines and code instructions are missing for modelling the interaction of such adjacent units because of scarce experimental data. Therefore, in this study an unreinforced stone masonry aggregate was tested on the bidirectional shake table with an incremental seismic protocol as a part of the SERA AIMS—Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures project. The aggregate was constructed at half-scale with double-leaf undressed stone masonry without interlocking between the units. Floors were built with timber beams and one layer of planks, with different beam span orientation for each unit. After significant damage, one of the units was retrofitted by anchoring the timber beams to the walls to prevent out-of-plane failure and testing was continued. Significant interaction between the units was observed with specific damage mechanisms. Cracking and separation were observed at the interface in both longitudinal and transverse direction, starting at lower intensity runs and progressively increasing. Bidirectional seismic excitation affected the unit separation, with friction forces seemingly playing a role in the transverse direction. Signs of pounding at the interface were observed during higher intensity runs, together with the formation of a soft storey mechanism at the upper storey of the higher unit. The mechanism involved an out-of-plane response of the shared wall, with a horizontal crack at the height of the interaction. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the seismic behaviour of masonry aggregates.

Experimental-analytical investigation of accelerated bridge construction concrete columns with self-centering Fe-SMA bars subjected to near-fault ground motions

Excessive seismic damage and residual deformation in bridge piers can result in time-consuming post-earthquake repair and replacement, which will adversely affect the recovery and seismic resilience of the transportation infrastructure. Seismic damage or permanent deformation in bridges can be minimized using advanced materials and novel technologies, of which shape memory alloy (SMA) has gained substantial momentum. The goal of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using unbonded iron-based shape memory alloy (Fe-SMA) bars as self-centering elements in accelerated bridge construction (ABC) piers to reduce residual seismic deformation. Shake table testing is performed on a one-third-scale bridge column specimen subjected to near-fault ground motions. A numerical model of the test specimen is developed in OpenSees, and the “pre-test” analysis results are compared with the experimental measurements. Acceptable correlations are observed between the simulated and measured residual drifts, accelerations, forces, and hysteretic responses. Furthermore, the test results are compared to that of a similar conventional cast-in-place RC column without self-centering elements. The maximum residual drift ratio in the tested Fe-SMA column specimen is found to be much smaller than the conventional column specimen highlighting the potential benefits of the proposed design.

Simplified Micro-Modeling of a Masonry Cross-Vault for Seismic Assessment Using the Distinct Element Method

ABSTRACT The assessment of the seismic performance of unreinforced masonry cross-vaults is still a challenge in numerical analysis, due to complex curved geometries and bond patterns, and uncertainties related to the selection of adequate modeling strategies, including but not limited to that of material properties, damping scheme, and unit/joint idealization. This paper presents the results of a collaborative effort to validate, against the shake table test of both unstrengthened and strengthened masonry cross-vault specimens as part of the SERA Project Blind Prediction and Post-diction Competition, various discontinuum-based numerical approaches. First, the geometry of the cross-vault is created using a Python-based computational framework to accurately represent the brick arrangement and the shape of the vault. Then, the geometry is converted into an assemblage of deformable blocks and analyzed using the Distinct Element Method (DEM). An elasto-softening contact model based on fracture energy is implemented in the masonry joints to simulate crushing, tensile, and shear failures. The performance of the proposed strategy, conceived for the unstrengthened configuration of the tested vault specimen and then adapted to include the presence of cementitious repairs, shows satisfactory agreement with both qualitative and quantitative experimental responses, also revealing critical insights and lessons learned through the blind/post-prediction exercise.

Experimental study on seismic responses of a curved bridge considering the effect of pulse and pulse duration

To investigate the effects of pulse-like ground motions on curved bridges, this study conducted a shake table test on a 1/10 scaled curved bridge model while considering the effect of pulse and pulse duration. The experimental results revealed that the seismic responses of curved bridges under pulse-like ground motions were greater than those under normal ground motions. The amplification effect caused by pulse-like ground motions was more pronounced in better site conditions. The effect of pulse duration on the responses of curved bridges was also significant and varied with the pulse duration. Therefore, seismic design should consider not only the pulse effect but also the difference in pulse duration. Furthermore, when curved bridges are subjected to pulse-like ground motions, bents with smaller stiffness and the outer bearing are more likely to be damaged and should receive more attention in seismic design.

A numerical and experimental study of a buoy interacting with waves

PurposeThis paper aims to report the study of a fluid buoy system that includes wave effects, with particular emphasis on validating the numerical results with experimental data.Design/methodology/approachA fluid–solid coupled algorithm is proposed to describe the motion of a rigid buoy under the effects of waves. The Navier–Stokes equations are solved with the open-source finite volume package Code Saturne, in which a free-surface capture technique and equations of motion for the solid are implemented. An ad hoc experiment on a laboratory scale is built. A buoy is placed into a tank partially filled with water; the tank is mounted into a shake table and subjected to controlled motion that promotes waves. The experiment allows for recording the evolution of the free surface at the control points using the ultrasonic sensors and the movement of the buoy by tracking the markers by postprocessing the recorded videos. The numerical results are validated by comparison with the experimental data.FindingsThe implemented free-surface technique, developed within the framework of the finite-volume method, is validated. The best-obtained agreement is for small amplitudes compatible with the waves evolving under deep-water conditions. Second, the algorithm proposed to describe rigid-body motion, including wave analysis, is validated. The numerical body motion and wave pattern satisfactorily matched the experimental data. The complete 3D proposed model can realistically describe buoy motions under the effects of stationary waves.Originality/valueThe novel aspects of this study encompass the implementation of a fluid–structure interaction strategy to describe rigid-body motion, including wave effects in a finite-volume context, and the reported free-surface and buoy position measurements from experiments. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the numerical strategy, the validation of the computed results and the experimental data are all original contributions of this work.

Seismic behavior of the brick masonry rural building strengthened with polypropylene grid cement mortar coating: Shaking table tests

Brick masonry structures are widely applied around the world, especially in Chinese rural areas, but their seismic performance is not satisfactory due to high brittleness of material and poor integrity of structure. Accordingly, a low-cost and highly efficient strengthening method for brick masonry structure is needed. This paper presents the shaking table tests for a 1/2-scale single-story brick masonry rural building strengthened with polypropylene grid cement mortar coating. The damage states of the test model under earthquake motions with different intensity were observed. The dynamic characteristics including natural frequency and damping ratio were discussed. The seismic response, such as acceleration, displacement, torsion angle, base shear and hysteretic energy dissipation, were analyzed. The results show that the weak areas of the test model were the corners of windows and door, the intersections between longitudinal wall and transverse wall and the top of longitudinal walls. With the input PGA of 1.0 g, the natural frequencies of the test model in the X and Y directions decreased to 93.1 % and 88.2 % of the initial values, respectively, the damping ratio in the X and Y directions increased to 2.56 and 1.61 times the initial values, respectively, and the maximum story drift and horizontal torsion angle were 1/122 and 0.0037 rad, respectively. The comparison between actual earthquake damage and test results showed that the use of polypropylene grid cement mortar coating to strengthen brick masonry rural building could result in good seismic behaviors.

Synchronous identification of nonlinear structural parameters and unknown external excitation based on improved UKF

The traditional Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) approach for nonlinear structural identification usually requires knowledge of external excitation. However, in real application, obtaining the input excitation of nonlinear structures can be challenging due to measurement error or difficulty in acquiring the accurate information. Consequently, the real-time application of the UKF method will be constrained. To address this issue, this paper develops an improved UKF-based synchronous identification method of nonlinear structural parameters and unknown external excitation. The proposed method starts with a preliminary estimate of the unknown excitation using the current predicted values of structural dynamic responses and parameters. Subsequently, the external excitation is further identified based on the updated state vector. In addition, to reduce the effect of measurement noise on the nonlinear structural identification and ensure the accuracy of the identified results, a Kalman Filter (KF) process is embedded in the UKF to optimize measurement noise covariance matrix in real time. The practicability and accuracy of the improved UKF method are confirmed by conducting numerical simulations on a single degree-of-freedom (S-DOF) and a six degree-of-freedom (six-DOF) nonlinear structural systems due to unknown seismic excitation. Moreover, a shake table test of a five-storey steel frame subjected to seismic excitation is employed to attest the feasibility of the proposed method. Both numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the improved UKF method can effectively achieve synchronous identification for nonlinear structural parameters and unknown excitation.

Toward Structural Health Monitoring with the MyShake Smartphone Network.

The field of structural health monitoring (SHM) faces a fundamental challenge related to accessibility. While analytical and empirical models and laboratory tests can provide engineers with an estimate of a structure's expected behavior under various loads, measurements of actual buildings require the installation and maintenance of sensors to collect observations. This is costly in terms of power and resources. MyShake, the free seismology smartphone app, aims to advance SHM by leveraging the presence of accelerometers in all smartphones and the wide usage of smartphones globally. MyShake records acceleration waveforms during earthquakes. Because phones are most typically located in buildings, a waveform recorded by MyShake contains response information from the structure in which the phone is located. This represents a free, potentially ubiquitous method of conducting critical structural measurements. In this work, we present preliminary findings that demonstrate the efficacy of smartphones for extracting the fundamental frequency of buildings, benchmarked against traditional accelerometers in a shake table test. Additionally, we present seven proof-of-concept examples of data collected by anonymous and privately owned smartphones running the MyShake app in real buildings, and assess the fundamental frequencies we measure. In all cases, the measured fundamental frequency is found to be reasonable and within an expected range in comparison with several commonly used empirical equations. For one irregularly shaped building, three separate measurements made over the course of four months fall within 7% of each other, validating the accuracy of MyShake measurements and illustrating how repeat observations can improve the robustness of the structural health catalog we aim to build.

Effect of the drag coefficient on the performance of vertical porous baffles in a sloshing tank

Purpose The present work involves analytical and experimental investigation of sloshing in a two-dimensional rectangular tank including the effect of porous baffles to control and/or reduce the wave motion in the sloshing tank. The purpose of this study is to assess the analytical solutions of the drag coefficient effect on porous baffles performance to track free surface motion variation in the sloshing tank by comparison with experimental shake table tests under a range of sway excitation. Design/methodology/approach The linear second-order ordinary differential equations for liquid sloshing in the rectangular tank were solved using Newmark’s beta method and obtained the analytical solutions for liquid sloshing with dual vertical porous baffles of full submergence depths in a sway-oscillated rectangular tank following the methodology similar to Warnitchai and Pinkaew (1998) and Tait (2008). Findings The porous baffles significantly reduce wave elevation in the varying filled levels of the tank compared to the baffle-free tank under the range of excitation frequencies. It is observed that the Reynolds number-dependent drag coefficient for porous baffles in the tank can significantly reduce the sloshing elevations and is found to be effective to achieve higher damping compared to the porosity-dependent drag coefficient for porous baffles in the sloshing tank. The analytical model’s response to free surface elevation variations in the sloshing tank was compared with the experiment’s test results. The analytical results matched with shake table test results with a quantitative difference near the first resonant frequency. Research limitations/implications The scope of the study is limited to porous baffles performance under range sway motion and three different filling levels in the tank. The porous baffle performance includes Reynolds number dependent drag coefficient to explore the damping effect in the sloshing tank. Originality/value The porous baffles with low-level porosities in the sloshing tank have many engineering applications where the first resonant mode of sloshing in the tank is more important. The porous baffle drag coefficient is an important parameter to study the baffle’s damping effect in sloshing tanks. Hence, obtained analytical solution for liquid sloshing in the rectangular tank with Reynolds number as well as porosity-dependent drag coefficient (model 1) and porosity-dependent drag coefficient porous baffles (model 2) performance is discussed. The model’s test results were validated using a series of shake table sloshing experiments for three fill levels in the tank with sway motion at various excitation frequencies covering the first four sloshing resonant modes.

Shake table test and numerical model update for a viscous damper isolated cable-stayed bridge

This study focused on the seismic responses and numerical model update of fluid viscous dampers (FVDs) isolated cable-stayed bridges excited by ground motions with different frequency contents. A 1/20 scaled three-span cable-stayed bridge was designed, constructed, and tested on a facility with four shake tables. Four ground motions with different frequency contents were adopted to excite the shake model. Then, a numerical model update framework of the shake table test was introduced, which combines the differential evolution (DE) algorithm and the parallel finite element computing technique. In addition, a time history response-based objective function was established that considered various responses of the bridge components. The shake table test results reveal that frequency contents affect the seismic responses of the cable-stayed bridge, and the ground motions with strong velocity pulses can amplify the displacements of the pylons and girder. In addition, the accelerations of the girder are relatively small and less sensitive to input ground motions. In general, the proposed method is efficient and accurate for updating the numerical model of the shake table test model.

Seismic isolation effect of unconnected piles-caisson foundation: Large-scale shake table tests

The seismic response and isolation mechanism of a new unconnected pile-caisson foundation (UPCF) suitable for supporting deep-water large-span bridges under seismic loading were investigated by large shaking table tests. Five scaled models were constructed utilizing different cushion material (aggregate), cushion thickness and piles configuration. Each model was tested under 18 different seismic loading conditions. The tests observations were analyzed to evaluate the seismic response characteristics and isolation mechanism of UPCF. The maximum displacement of UPCF and the peak acceleration of the input ground motion were linearly related. Under strong ground motions, the foundation soil and cushion displayed a significant softening behavior manifested in reduced natural frequencies and prolonged periods, which resulted in lower acceleration amplification. However, the stiffnesses of soil and cushion were largely restored after the ground shaking ended. The cushion model with larger aggregate particles performed better in terms of the caisson residual displacement and displacement restoration rate of the caisson. It was found that the UPCF constructed with a thin cushion layer comprised of large, rounded aggregate particles exhibited acceptable seismic isolation effect and reduced the peak seismic acceleration by up to 26.7%. It was also observed that the front and middle piles experienced larger loads, and accordingly, their peak moment envelopes were greater and the location of peak moment was shallower.

Study of Tunnelling-Induced Response of Building Frame with Shake Table Test

Study of Tunnelling-Induced Response of Building Frame with Shake Table Test