System identification of torsionally coupled buildings

In this study, an extended random decrement method, which considers the correlation among measurements, was employed to reduce the measured dynamic responses of general torsionally coupled multi-story building under random excitations. The Ibrahim time domain technique was then applied to calculate the modal frequencies and damping ratios based on only a few floor response measurements. To obtain the complete mode shapes, an interpolation method was developed to estimate the mode shape values for the locations without measurements. The seismic responses at floors with and without measurements were also calculated. Numerical results through a seven-story torsionally coupled building under ambient random excitations demonstrated that the proposed method is able to identify structural dominant modal parameters accurately even with highly coupled modes and noise contamination. A small number of response measurements, no requirement for input excitation measurements and simple on-line calculations make the proposed method favorable for implementation.