Simulated Seismic‐Load Tests on Full‐Scale Five‐Story Masonry Building

Abstract

The first U.S. full‐scale five‐story building test under simulated seismic loads was conducted at the University of California, San Diego. The full‐scale reinforced masonry (RM) research building consisted of coupled, flanged, fully grouted concrete masonry walls and precast prestressed hollow‐core plank floors with reinforced‐concrete topping. The seismic‐simulation tests were conducted under the direction of the Technical Coordinating Committee for Masonry Research (TCCMAR) to validate new analysis and design models for masonry buildings in seismic zones. The complete seismic simulation testing of the five‐story structural wall building under recorded earthquake ground‐motion segments was possible through soft coupling between the loading system and the stiff test structure, and improvements to the on‐line actuator‐control algorithm as part of the implicit time‐integration scheme. The development and implementation of the generated sequential displacement (GSD) procedure for the experimental multidegree‐of‐freedom seismic‐load simulation is described and illustrated by detailed examples of responses.