System Identification of Base-Isolated Building using Seismic Response Data

Due to the complex nature of the excitation, and the inherent dynamics characteristics of restoring force of the base isolation systems, the response of base-isolated structures subject to strong earthquakes often experiences excursion into the inelastic range. Therefore, in designing base-isolated structures, the nonlinear hysteretic restoring force model of the base isolation system is frequently used to predict structural response and to evaluate structural safety. In this paper, the prediction error method system identification technique is used in conjunction with nonlinear state-space models for identification of a base-isolated structure. Using a variety of nonlinear restoring force models and bidirectional recorded seismic responses, several identification runs are conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the selected models. Several nonlinear restoring force models are utilized for the base-isolation system, including a multiple shear spring (MSS) model. Among all models used, results indicate that the trilinear hysteretic MSS model closely matches the actual hysteretic restoring force profile and time histories obtained directly from the observed data.