HHT based analysis on seismic response recordings for a base-isolated building

Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) is proposed to process the seismic response recordings in an 8-story frame-shear wall base-isolated building. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method is first applied to identify the time variant characteristics and the data series can be decomposed into several components. Hilbert transform is well-behaved in identifying the frequency components. The first 5 intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are decomposed with their different frequencies. The analytical function is reconstructed and compared with the original signal. They are extremely consistent in amplitude and phase. Based on the IMFs obtained, frequencies of the original signal are inferred at 5 Hz and 1.6 Hz. The higher frequency is regarded as the vibration excited by surface waves. 1.6 Hz is suggested as the dominant frequency of the building. Analysis indicates that HHT is accurate in extracting the dynamic characteristics of structural systems.