Seismic response trends evaluation via long term monitoring and finite element model updating of an RC building including soil-structure interaction

This paper presents a study on the seismic response trends evaluation and finite element model updating of a reinforced concrete building monitored for a period of more than two years. The three storey reinforced concrete building is instrumented with five tri-axial accelerometers and a free-field tri-axial accelerometer. The time domain N4SID system identification technique was used to obtain the frequencies and damping ratios considering flexible base models taking into account the soil-structure-interaction (SSI) using 50 earthquakes. Trends of variation of seismic response were developed by correlating the peak response acceleration at the roof level with identified frequencies and damping ratios. A general trend of decreasing frequencies was observed with increased level of shaking. To simulate the behavior of the building, a three dimensional finite element model (FEM) was developed. To incorporate real in-situ conditions, soil underneath the foundation and around the building was modeled using spring elements and non-structural components (claddings and partitions) were also included. The developed FEM was then calibrated using a sensitivity based model updating technique taking into account soil flexibility and non-structural components as updating parameters. It was concluded from the investigation that knowledge of the variation of seismic response of buildings is necessary to better understand their behavior during earthquakes, and also that the participation of soil and non-structural components is significant towards the seismic response of the building and these should be considered in models to simulate the real behavior.