Lifelike Model

by Abolhassan Astaneh, Assoc. Prof.; Civil Engineering, Earthquake Engrg. Res. Ctr., Univ. of California at Berkeley, 1301 South 46th St., Richmond, CA 94804,
David Bonowitz, Earthquake Engrg. Res. Ctr., Univ. of California at Berkeley, 1301 South 46tth St., Richmond, CA,
Cheng Chen, Earthquake Engrg. Res. Ctr., Univ. of California at Berkeley, 1301 South 46th St., Richmond, CA,


Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1993, Vol. 63, Issue 6, Pg. 47-49


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

Data from about 400 structures in the San Francisco Bay Area were recorded during the 7.1 Richter-scale Loma Prieta quake. Among these structures was a 49-story office tower in downtown San Francisco. Data from this building was studied by a team of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley. Using a commercially available software program, they constructed a three dimensional model of the building and subjected it to ground motions derived from actual time histories of seismic data gathered during the earthquake. They found that the response predicted from the computer simulation matched the actual response of the building to a very high level of accuracy. Comparing actual results to the simulation, they also tested the validity of various modeling assumptions. Basically, almost all reasonable assumptions will yield realistic results.

Subject Headings: Three-dimensional models | Ground motion | Buildings | Team building | Structural models | Simulation models | Seismic tests

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