Ellen Simoen

Uncertainty Quantification in the Assessment of Progressive Damage in a 7-Story Full-Scale Building Slice

AbstractIn this paper, Bayesian linear finite-element (FE) model updating is applied for uncertainty quantification (UQ) in the vibration-based damage assessment of a 7-story RC building slice. This structure was built and tested at full scale on the University of California at San Diego-Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation shake table: progressive damage was induced by subjecting it to a set of historical earthquake ground motion records of increasing intensity. At each damage stage, modal characteristics, such as natural frequencies and mode shapes, were identified through low-amplitude vibration testing; these data are used in the Bayesian FE model updating scheme. To analyze the results of the Bayesian scheme and gain insight into the information contained in the data, a comprehensive uncertainty and resolution analysis is proposed and applied to the 7-story building test case. The Bayesian UQ approach and subsequent resolution analysis are shown to be effective in assessing uncertainty in FE...