Ultra-Low Forced Vibration Testing

The research objective of this award is to investigate the feasibility of extremely low amplitude forced vibration testing (FVT) to determine the structural dynamic properties of a low-rise building. To achieve this objective, the researchers will use a very small, 30-pound harmonic load to shake a full-scale, five-story building test specimen, constructed as part of NSF award CMMI-0936505, on the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) outdoor shake table at the University of California, San Diego. The results of the ultra-low (UL) forced vibration testing (UL-FVT), namely, the natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios, will be compared to shake table test results and FVT using much larger shakers. The comparison will be made at multiple stages of the specimen testing. This research is potentially transformative in that it will for the first time define the limits and applicability of the UL-FVT. Data from this project will be archived and made available to the public through the NEES Project Warehouse/data repository at http://www.nees.org.