Forced-Vibration Tests of a Reinforced Concrete Four-Story Building Structure

Abstract

A set of acceleration records obtained at specific points of an actual reinforced concrete, four-story building structure subjected to forced vibrations are presented and documented in this data paper. The structure has vertical setbacks, which gives it natural eccentricity along one direction. The tests were conducted to study the torsional behavior of the structure subjected to forced and ambient vibrations. A mechanical eccentric-mass exciter was used for the tests. The exciter was attached to the roof slab at two locations, and the resultant force was varied in position, magnitude, direction, and frequency. During the tests, the only vertical loads applied to the building structure were those resulting from the self-weight of the columns, beams, and slabs. No additional vertical dead or live loads existed. Given the characteristics of the structure and the tests, the generated data can be used for several purposes, such as building torsion and structural identification, among others. The simplicity of the building allows for the faithful analytical replication of the conducted tests because there is no interference with nonstructural elements or live loads.