Structural Health Monitoring of a 54-story Steel Frame Building Using a Wave Method and Earthquake Records

The variations of identified wave velocities of vertically propagating waves through the structure are investigated for a 54-story steel-frame building in downtown Los Angeles, California, over a period of 19 years since construction (1992-2010), using records of six earthquakes. The set includes all significant earthquakes that shook this building, which produced maximum transient drift ~0.3%, and caused no reported damage. Wave velocity profiles ( ) z β are identified for the NS, EW and torsional responses by fitting layered shear beam/torsional shaft models in the recorded responses, by waveform inversion of pulses in impulse response functions. The results suggest variations larger than the estimation error, with coefficient of variation about 2-4.4%. About 10% permanent reduction of the building stiffness is detected, caused mainly by the Landers and Big Bear earthquake sequence of June 28, 1992, and the Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994. Permanent changes of comparable magnitude were identified also in the first two apparent modal frequencies, 1,app f and