Blind Prediction Contest on the Shake Table Tests of a 3D Rocking Structure


Date

2021

Publication Type

Conference Paper

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

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Data

Abstract

Rocking motion is sensitive to the boundary and initial conditions of a rocking structure. Thus, the claims that numerical rocking motion models are not only inaccurate, but that all rocking structures behave unpredictably. Hence, rocking is not used as a seismic design approach. This paper revisits the issue of rocking motion unpredictability. Seismic behavior of structures is inherently stochastic, because the loading is stochastic. Therefore, the question of interest is not whether models can predict the seismic response to a single ground motion, but if the statistical characteristics of the ensemble of responses to a set of ground motions that define the seismic hazard can be predicted. For this purpose, a rocking podium, which is a three-dimensional structure comprising an aluminum slab supported by 4 tubular steel columns, was tested on a shake table excited by two sets of 100 consistently generated ground motions. It was found that the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the experimentally obtained displacements is statistically stable. Next, a blind prediction contest was organized. The contestants were invited to predict the CDFs of the slab lateral displacement. They were able to predict the slab displacement CDF relatively well. Both finite element and discrete element modeling approaches were used, but no clear pattern emerged as it was found that the performance of either approach depends on the input parameters used and the assumptions made.

Publication status

published

External links

Editor

Book title

Proceedings of the Seventeenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering Japan 2021

Volume

Pages / Article No.

Publisher

National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering

Event

17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (WCEE 2020-21)

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Rocking; Blind prediction contest; Shake table testing; Model validation

Organisational unit

09663 - Vassiliou, Michalis (ehemalig) / Vassiliou, Michalis (former) check_circle
03930 - Stojadinovic, Bozidar / Stojadinovic, Bozidar check_circle

Notes

Conference postponed due to Corona virus (COVID-19). Rescheduled from September 13-18, 2020 to September 27 - October 2, 2021. Poster presentation on September 30, 2021.

Funding

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