Building Periods for Use in Earthquake Resistant Design Codes – Earthquake Response Data Compilation and Analysis of Time and Amplitude Variations

 

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, under USGS award number 03HQGR0013 (PI: M. Todorovska; 12/01/2003—11/30/2004), and 05HQGR027 (PI: M. Todorovska; 12/01/2004—11/30/2005).  The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.  The film records for this project were provided from the archives of the National Strong Motion Program.

Summary

Most seismic building codes estimate the design forces in structures based on the seismic coefficient C(T), where T is the “fundamental vibration period of the building.”  For structures on flexible soil, the relative response is the largest at the first period of the soil-structure system, which should be substituted in the code equation.  This period depends not only on the structure itself, but also on the properties of the foundation system, of the surrounding soil, and on the contact conditions between the foundation and the soil.  Studies for selected buildings have shown that this period can vary significantly during earthquake shaking as function of the level of shaking, reflecting changes in stiffness of the structure and of the soil (permanent or temporary), and changes in the bonding between the foundation and the soil, and can be very different from the estimates using ambient vibration data.  For further refinement of the existing and development of new design code procedures, it is important to understand these changes and estimate their range during strong earthquake shaking, which is done best by analysis of actual earthquake response data for a large number of buildings. 

This web site presents results of a one year project, which involved compilation of new and gathering and analysis of existing processed strong motion data of building responses in the Los Angeles area, and in particular of buildings that recorded the 1994 Northridge earthquake and aftershocks, with the objective to estimate the variation of the first system frequency as a function of the level of shaking and time. 

Publications

Todorovska, M.I., T.-Y. Hao and M.D. Trifunac (2004).  “Building Periods for Use in Earthquake Resistant Design Codes – Earthquake Response Data Compilation and Analysis of Time and Amplitude Variations,” Department of Civil Engineering Report CE 04-02, University of Southern California.  Main body , Appendix A , Appendix B

Todorovska, M.I., T.-Y. Hao and M.D. Trifunac (2004).  “Variability of Soil-Structure System Frequencies during Strong Earthquake Shaking for a Group of Buildings in Los Angeles Estimated from Strong Motion Records,” Proc. Third UJNR Workshop on Soil-Structure Interaction, March 29-30, 2004, Menlo Park California. 

Todorovska MI, Trifunac MD, Hao TY (2006).  Variations of apparent building frequencies - lessons from full-scale earthquake observations, Proc. First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (a joint event of the 13th ECEE & 30th General Assembly of the ESC), Geneva, Switzerland, 3-8 September 2006, Paper Number: 1547.    

Todorovska MI.  Building periods for use in earthquake resistant design codes – earthquake response data compilation and analysis of time and amplitude variations, Final project report. Main body , Appendix A , Appendix B .

Data Release

Processed data (Volume 1, 2 and 3) for 21 buildings can be downloaded free of charge via anonymous ftp from:  ftp://cwis.usc.edu/pub/todorovs/USGS_build/ . The only condition on the use of these data is the courtesy to acknowledge the data sources (see the following section).  The files are organized by USGS station number.  Sample programs to read the files can be downloaded from: ftp://cwis.usc.edu/pub/todorovs/North_aft_M5/tools.   A summary of the data processing methods can be found in:

 

*Todorovska, M.I., and V.W. Lee (2004).  “Strong Motion data processing and recording at University of Southern California,” Proc. Invited Workshop on Strong-Motion Record Processing, Organized by Consortium for Strong Motion Observation Programs (COSMOS), May 26-27, 2004, Richmond, California. 

               

List of buildings:

Station No.

N

floors

Street address

No.

Records released

No. Comp.

released

0466

13

LOS ANGELES, 15250 VENTURA BLVD., Roof

2

6

0482

12

ALHAMBRA, 900 S. FREMONT, 12-chanel array

2

24

0663

12

LOS ANGELES, 10751 WILSHIRE Blvd., Roof

3

9

0742

8

LOS ANGELES, 1526 N.EDGEMONT ST., Roof

12

36

0793

11

LOS ANGELES, 4929 WILSHIRE BLVD., Roof

5

15

0804

10

WHITTIER, 7215 BRIGHT AVE., Basement, Roof

0

0

0872

8

LOS ANGELES, 1111 SUNSET Blvd., Bsmnt, 4th and 8th fl.

1

9

0892

55

LOS ANGELES, 333 S. HOPE ST., 5th fl.

2

6

5082

6

LOS ANGELES, WADSWORTH V.A. HOSPITAL, 9-chanel array

2

18

5106

11

LONG BEACH VA HOSPITAL, structural array

0

0

5108

6

SANTA SUSANA, ETEC Bldg 462, 1st and 6th fl.

11

66

5233

32

1100 WILSHIRE, LOS ANGELES, CA, 12-chanel array

1

12

5239

7

NORWALK, 12440 IMPERIAL HWY, structural array

0

0

5259

8

LOS ANGELES, 2005 N. HIGHLAND AVE., Roof

8

24

5260

12

LOS ANGELES, 444 S. SAN VINCENTE, Roof

8

24

5263

19

LOS ANGELES, 10660 WILSHIRE BLVD., Roof

5

15

5450

9

BURBANK, 3601 WEST OLIVE AVE., Roof

5

15

5451

12

LOS ANGELES, 6301 OWENSMOUTH AVE., Roof

3

9

5453

9

LOS ANGELES, 5805 SEPULVEDA BLVD., Roof

9

27

5455

13

LOS ANGELES, 16000 VENTURA BLVD., Roof

6

18

5457

10

LOS ANGELES, 8436 WEST 3rd ST., Roof

9

27

Acknowledgement of Data Sources

Users are kindly requested to acknowledge the sources of these data - USGS Strong Motion Program, which maintains the archives of these records, and the University of Southern California - Strong Motion Research Group, which processed the records.

Contact

Maria I. Todorovska

University of Southern California                                    

Civil Engineering Department                                                           

Los Angeles, CA 90089-2531

Tel. (213) 740-0616; fax. (213) 744-1426; E-mail: mtodorov@usc.edu

Links

USC Strong Motion Research Group

National Strong Motion Program

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Last updated on 10/3/2007