SERA TA Project # 28

Title of Project:
Ambient and forced vibration techniques for improving design and performance assessment of structures with consideration of soil-structure interaction
Hosting Research Infrastructure:
EUROSEISTEST and EUROPROTEAS

No. of Users:
4

Team Leader:
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering
Matjaž Dolšek

Team:
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering
Mirko Kosič, Jure Žižmond, Anže Babič


Summary of Project:
Excessively simplified design of new buildings or performance assessment of existing buildings, without eliminating major sources of epistemic uncertainties, can lead to incorrect decision-making. Ongoing research is thus focused on the improvement of design and assessment procedures of structures without increasing their complexity. The objective of the proposed project is to support such research by investigating the usability of detailed measurement of soil-structure interaction based on ambient and forced vibrations of a simple structure. Two series of experiments will be performed at EuroProteas site:
a) Ambient-vibration measurements: the aim of experiment is non-destructive system identification using different methods
b) Forced-vibration measurements: the aim of experiment is the measurement of the response of the soil-interacting system to gradually increased forced vibrations in linear and nonlinear range.
The results of the first series of experiments will be used to validate different methods for system identification, and to study how these results can be used to reduce epistemic uncertainties involved in seismic assessment of existing buildings. The results of the second series of experiments will supplement the results of the first series of experiments and will be used to validate nonlinear models which will then be used in parametric studies in order to develop a simplified method for definition of design spectrum with consideration of soil structure interaction.
The proposed experimental campaign at EuroProteas will be in line with ongoing research at University of Ljubljana, which addresses the development of design response spectrum with approximate consideration of soil structure interaction and the usability of the non-destructive dynamic system identification techniques for the risk assessment of existing structures. The interest of the user group is also to acquire the knowledge to design and perform such experiments.