Wave Propagation Modeling Analysis of Earthquake Records for Buildings

Abstract

This paper introduces an application of wave propagation modeling to building response investigation. We have analyzed the computed responses of analytical building models and the obtained strong-motion records for forty-one actual buildings during five different earthquakes by using the normalized input output minimization (NIOM) method. This method can model wave propagation in multiple linear systems by considering the statistical correlation of the earthquake motions at different observation locations, and can reveal the arrival times of incident and reflected waves as well as their relative amplitudes. From these values, the fundamental period and the damping ratio of the building could be simply estimated. The estimated values were then compared with the values for the analytical building models, the values estimated in the previous studies for the actual buildings, and the building code formula.