The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Investigation of the inelastic characteristics of a single story steel structure using system identification and shaking table experiments

Matzen, Vernon C.; McNiven, Hugh D.

UCB/EERC-76/20, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1976-08, 143 pages (555.3/M286/1976)

In this report, system identification is used to formulate a realistic nonlinear mathematical model to represent the seismic behavior of a single-story steel structure. With this model and the parameters established for it, the energy absorbing characteristics of the structure are investigated. During this study, system identification itself is examined to determine how it can be better utilized in structural engineering. There are three major parts to this research. The first is the mathematical development of system identification to meet the particular needs of this problem. This development involves the formulation of a second-order nonlinear differential equation with linear viscous damping and Ramberg-Osgood type hysteresis. The second part of the research involved shaking table experiments in which a single-story steel frame was subjected to several earthquake excitations. The tests were designed to give specific information about the structure: how its behavior depends on the particular excitation, and how the previous loading history affects its subsequent behavior. The last part of the research is the use of test data in the identification program to establish the four parameters in the mathematical model.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-76-20.pdf (10 MB)