Development of frame test system to assess seismic performance of high-rise buildings: E-defense shaking table test

No actual data based on obsersations is available for high-rise buildings subjected to long-period ground motions. A series of shaking table tests on a high-rise building are conducted in order to acquire realistic data on the damage. A proposed test specimen consists of a lower part represented by four story steel frame structure and an upper part simplified by substitute layers made of concrete mass and rubber bearings. From preliminary vibration tests, the equivalence between the test specimen and a prototype building is verified in terms of the first three mode periods and corresponding mode shapes. The test specimen when subjected to a long-period ground motion exhibits cumulatise inelastic deformations more than four times that expected in the seismic design, while the maximum story drifts remain nearly the same as that considered in the design.