System Identification of a Full Scale Wood Frame Building Specimen Subjected to Shake Table Tests

This paper describes a series of ambient vibration tests conducted on a full scale wood frame building specimen to determine the dynamic properties of the typical wood frame school buildings in British Columbia, Canada. The specimen was subjected to the shake table tests to simulate the magnitude 8.8 earthquake and its aftershocks on the building. A set of sensors were used to measure the ambient vibration of the specimen before and after the main shock and after the sequent aftershocks. Modal response analysis was performed to identify the dynamic properties of the specimen. As the results, the natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes of the specimen before and after each shake table test were presented.