Modal analysis of a densely instrumented building using strong motion data

A densely instrumented residential building was tested using seismic simulator (shake table) for a series of strong events. These events included several runs of 200% Izmit Turkey earthquake 1999, which caused over 20,000 casualties. The building was brought to near failure condition through these experiments sequentially. The instrumentation on the system consisted of commonly used piezoresistive and wireless micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers along with conventional strain and displacement measurements. Part, of the ground story was heavily damaged due to these experiments. System identification studies using multiple-input/multiple-output procedure were performed to obtain modal properties of the building. The change of the modal properties of the system was monitored and documented. The obtained natural frequencies and modes were compared with results from shaker tests. The statistical proper-ties of the estimated modal proper-ties were determined using Monte Carlo, simulations. Comparison of conventional piezoresistive accelerometers and new wireless MEMS sensors is also given in the paper for the purpose of future extensions of the presented study.