Response features and parametric identification of shear-deformation buildings with continuous–discrete modeling

This study presents fundamental response features of seismic shear motion in multi-story buildings with a continuous–discrete model and its degenerated ones, and shows their applications in inverse parametric identification. In particular, the building is modeled as a series of continuous shear-beams for inter-story columns/walls and discrete lumped-masses for rigid floors. Shear motion response at one location of the building is then obtainable to an impulsive motion at another location in the time and frequency domains, termed here as generalized impulse and frequency response functions (GIRF and GFRF). The GIRF and GFRF are not only fundamental in relating seismic responses at the two locations of a building structure subjected to ground seismic excitation that is not fully known due to the complicated soil–structure interaction. They also play a key role in characterizing structural responses, as well as in identifying dynamic parameters of the building. For illustration, this study examines response features of ten-story building of Millikan Library in Pasadena, California with the Yorba Linda earthquake of September 3, 2002. With the use of the continuous–discrete model as well as its degenerated ones, structural responses are interpreted from the perspective of wave propagation, and more importantly validated with the pertinent recordings and discrete-model-based results. Parametric identification of the building with a pair of seismic recordings is then presented. This study finally comes up a conclusion that the proposed approach with continuous–discrete modeling is efficient and robust in forward predicting analysis and inverse system identification.