Ambient Vibration Test on Earthquake Damaged R/C Building Structures

Reinforcement concrete (R/C) structure is constructed and developed very rapidly in recent 30 years with the economic increasing not only in metropolitan cities but also in wide rural areas of China. It’s famous for its’ easy construction and high load bearing capacity. But in recent large earthquakes, more and more different type of severe damages about R/C structures have been observed due to either unreasonable design or extra-high ground shaking intensity exceeding the design level mostly. In the field investigation for the 2010 Yushu Ms7.1 earthquake of China, six RC frame buildings, were investigated and tested by means of the ambient vibration test method. Both of the test results of the natural frequency for each building as well as its’ damage pattern were described and briefly analyzed in this paper. The investigation results provide reference data for nonlinear numerical analysis and retrofitting of RC frame building structures.