\n Ambient vibrations are nowadays considerably used worldwide for numerous types of engineering applications and scientific research. Geopsy and its companion tools are part of that landscape. Since the first release of the program package in 2005, as outcome of the European Union project Site Effects aSsessment from AMbient noisE, Geopsy has become a mature multiplatform open-source package (released under GNU Public License version 3) that has already been recognized as a reference tool for analyzing ambient vibration data in the context of site characterization studies. The community of users has grown from a core group of researchers up to thousands of seismologists and engineers on every career level and on all continents. The versatility of geopsy allows for the processing of all kinds of data needed in site characterization studies, that is, from single station single trace to three-component array recordings. In all of the aforementioned cases, the steps from field acquisition to the production of publication-ready figures are covered and supported by user-friendly graphical user interfaces or corresponding command-line tools for the automation of the complete processing chain. To avoid black-box usage, a number of lower-level tools guarantee maximum flexibility in accessing and controlling processing results at any stage of the analysis.

Geopsy: A User‐Friendly Open‐Source Tool Set for Ambient Vibration Processing

The ambient and forced vibration techniques for testing full-scale structures are critically compared. Both methods, based on small level excitation, may be used to determine many mode shapes and frequencies of vibration and the corresponding damping values, with adequate accuracy for most purposes. The two techniques give mutually consistent results.

The mode amplitudes determined by ambient and forced vibration tests show systematic departure for high modes and near the top levels of buildings tested. This phenomenon is attributed to the participation of all mode shapes and is a consequence of excitation by a concentrated force near the top of a building and at a frequency differing by only a few per cent from a natural frequency of vibrations.

A new way of showing the effect of unwanted modes on the response near resonance of the mode being sought is developed. It is particularly useful for the analysis of steady, forced vibration tests of structures using eccentric mass vibration generators.

Comparisons between ambient and forced vibration experiments

SUMMARY

The paper reviews some of the most recent aspects involved in the dynamic testing and continuous monitoring of bridges. This includes a discussion of testing techniques, instrumentation, modal identification and damage detection. On the basis of their experience, the authors described several case studies in which some of the most recent developments have been used to accomplish different purposes: the Millau Viaduct, in France, the Pedro e Ines footbridge and the Infante D. Henrique Bridge, in Portugal, and the Grande Ravine Viaduct, at the Reunion Island. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recent perspectives in dynamic testing and monitoring of bridges

SUMMARY Broad-band urban seismic noise (USN) must be considered as a temporally and spatially non-stationary random process. Due to the high variability of USN a single measure like the standard deviation of a seismic noise time-series or the power spectral density at a given frequency is not enough to characterize a sample (time-series) of USN comprehensively. Therefore, we use long-term spectrograms and propose an automated statistical classification in the time domain to quantify and characterize USN. Long-term spectrograms of up to 28 d duration are calculated from a broad-band seismic data set recorded in the metropolitan area of Bucharest, Romania, to identify the frequency-dependent behaviour of the timevariable processes contributing to USN. Based on the spectral analysis eight frequency ranges between 8 mHz and 45 Hz are selected for our proposed time domain classification. The classification scheme identifies deviations from the Gaussian distribution of 4-hr-long timeseries of USN. Our classification is capable to identify Gaussian distributed seismic noise timeseries as well as time-series dominated by transient or periodic signals using six noise classes. Four additional noise classes are introduced to identify corrupt time-series. The performance of the method is tested with a synthetic data set. We also apply the statistical classification for the data set from Bucharest in three time windows (0–4, 8–12 and 13–17 EET) at 11 d in the eight frequency ranges. Only 40 per cent of the analysed time-series are observed to be Gaussian distributed. Most common deviations from the Gaussian distribution (∼47 per cent) are due to the influence of large-amplitude transient signals. In all frequency ranges between 0.04 and 45 Hz significant variations of the statistical properties of USN are observed with daytime, indicating the broad-band human influence on USN. We observe the human activity as a dominant influence on the USN above and below the frequency band of ocean-generated microseism between 0.04 and 0.6 Hz. Our time domain classification and quantification is furthermore capable to resolve the influence of wind on seismic noise and a known site effect variation in the metropolitan area of Bucharest. The information about noise amplitudes and statistical properties derived automatically from broad-band seismic data can be used to select time windows containing adequate data for seismic noise utilization like H/V-studies or ambient noise tomography.

Time domain classification and quantification of seismic noise in an urban environment

In countries with a moderate seismic hazard, the classical methods developed for strong motion prone countries to estimate the seismic behaviour and subsequent vulnerability of existing buildings are often inadequate and not financially realistic. The main goals of this paper are to show how the modal analysis can contribute to the understanding of the seismic building response and the good relevancy of a modal model based on ambient vibrations for estimating the structural deformation under moderate earthquakes. We describe the application of an enhanced modal analysis technique (Frequency Domain Decomposition) to process ambient vibration recordings taken at the Grenoble City Hall building (France). The frequencies of ambient vibrations are compared with those of weak earthquakes recorded by the French permanent accelerometric network (RAP) that was installed to monitor the building. The frequency variations of the building under moderate earthquakes are shown to be slight (~2%) and therefore ambient vibration frequencies are relevant over the elastic domain of the building. The modal parameters extracted from ambient vibrations are then used to determine the 1D lumped-mass model in order to reproduce the inter-storey drift under weak earthquakes and to fix a 3D numerical model that could be used for strong earthquakes. The correlation coefficients between data and synthetic motion are close to 80% and 90% in horizontal directions, for the 1D and 3D modelling, respectively.

Full-scale dynamic response of an RC building under weak seismic motions using earthquake recordings, ambient vibrations and modelling

Random wind excitation has been used to find the first three modes of vibration of a nineteenstory building about the two major translational axes and the torsional axis of the building. Vibration records were obtained with Willmore electromagnetic seismometers feeding into a multichannel magnetic tape recorder. A harmonic analysis was then performed with the aid of an analogue computer to determine the first few vibration modes. Concurrently with the experimental program the building modes were computed two ways using different simplifying assumptions regarding the lateral stiffness of the structure.

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Determination of the natural periods of buildings

This paper outlines the methods that have been used to determine the frequencies and modes of vibration of multistory buildings from their wind-induced vibrations. Three buildings of ten, thirty-eight and forty-seven stories were investigated. A simple theoretical model was used to calculate the frequencies of vibration of the buildings; the model was based on the assumption that there was no joint rotation in the building frames. A comparison of the theoretical and measured values of the frequencies showed that this simple model was a realistic representation of only the smaller building. It is concluded that a model that includes joint rotation would be more realistic for the taller buildings. Auto-correlation and power spectrum analysis of the vibration records were used to obtain an estimate of the damping characteristics of the buildings. The values obtained were 1 to 3 per cent of the critical amount of damping.

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R. Crawford

Papers

Determination of the natural periods of buildings

Wind-induced vibrations and building modes