“Sidesway Collapse of Deteriorating Structural Systems Under Seismic Excitations”

Task 5: “Shake Table Testing of a Scaled Model of a 4-Story Special Steel Moment Resisting Frame”

Figure 2
Figure 1: prototype structure

Figure 2
Figure 2: Component
Subassembly setup

Figure 3
Figure 3: Buckling of
top dogbone plate

Figure 4
Figure 4: Fracture of
top dogbone plate

Figure 5
Figure 5: Collapse frame
configuration with
bracing systems
in place

Figure 6
Figure 6: View of Completed
Collapse frame

Figure 7
Figure 7: REU Students
in action

Figure 8
Figure 8: Typical interior
joint of Collapse Frame
with completed
instrumentation

Figure 9
Figure 9: Collapse
mechanism of Frame #1
after collapse

Figure 10
Figure 10: Collapse
mechanism of Frame #2
after collapse

Research Personnel

NEESCollapse project objectives

  • Documentation of a comprehensive collapse experiment with data that covers the range of response of a 4-story steel frame structure from elastic behavior to incipient collapse.
  • Evaluation effectiveness of analytical models that model explicitly deterioration
  • Generation of landmark experimental data to be used by all project participants

Please, visit the NEESCollapse project website for more information.

Prototype Structure

  • 4-story prototype structure (a plan view of the building is presented in figure 1) with 4 by 3 bays. Designed with reduced beam sections (RBS).
  • Site Location: Los Angeles
  • Design specifications: IBC-2003, AISC-2005, FEMA - 350

Collapse Test Frame

Scale model of prototype East - West special moment resisting steel frame (Scale 1:8)

  • Phase I: Monotonic and cyclic subassembly tests (Figures 2-4)
  • Phase II: 2 Shake table tests (Figure 5)

Experiment Setup

  • Using shake table #1 at NEES facility at University at Buffalo
  • Krypton System (40 LEDs)
  • 234 Channels

Experiment Updates

NOTE: Only the latest update is listed below.
  • August 9, 2007: NEESCollapse project has been completed
    • After Phase I, Frame #1 collapsed as predicted (Figure 9)
    • After Phase II, Frame #2 collapsed at the same level of intensity as Frame #1 using Canoga Park record (Figure 10)

View ARCHIVED Video!

Scheduled Testing Phases

  • Test Series I
    1. Elastic Modal Testing (06/27/2007 - 07/09/2007)
    2. Service Level (07/09/2007)
    3. Design Level (07/09/2007)
    4. MCE level (07/12/2007)
    5. Collapse level (1.9 * Canoga Park Record) (07/16/2007)
    6. Final Collapse Test (07/18/2007)
  • Test Series II
    1. Elastic Modal Testing (08/02/2007)
    2. Design Level (08/03/2007)
    3. Collapse Test (08/06/2007)

Sponsor

This project is supported by the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation program of the National Science Foundation under award number CMS-0421551.

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SEESL - Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory
133 Ketter Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
phone. +1(716)645-2114 x2427       fax. +1(716)645-3733