QuakeCoRE-NCREE Blind Prediction Competition 2019

Two specimens with torsional irregularities are to be tested in the Tainan laboratory of National Center
for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), Taiwan. The specimens were designed considering
the structural systems of two RC residential buildings that collapsed during the 2016 Meinong
Earthquake in Tainan, along with some modifications to adjust to the research needs. Both specimens
have RC frames spanning one bay (3.5 m) along the x-direction and two bays (7 m) along the y direction
and a “soft” first storey (Fig. 1). The specimens also have RC shear walls in the short floor-plan
direction (i.e. x direction) in stories 2 through 7. The test structures shall be subjected to unidirectional
excitation in their short floor-plan direction on the NCREE earthquake simulator (Fig. 2).
Each specimen is made of three separate units (A’, B, and C). Only Unit A’ was constructed for each
of the two specimens and shall be connected with re-usable upper units (B and C) already available in
the laboratory.

Figure 1: 3-D and first storey plan view of test specimens

The two specimens were designed to have different sources of irregularities: Specimen-1 was designed
to investigate torsional response caused by stiffness/strength eccentricity as well as damage irregularity
while Specimen-2 was designed to have irregularity caused by strength degradation of non-ductile
elements. The nominal dimensions of RC elements in Unit A’ are the same in both specimens but with
ductile and non-ductile detailing in columns in Specimen 1 and 2 respectively. In addition, in order to
create stiffness/strength eccentricity in Specimen-1, a URM infill wall was installed at the first storey
in one of the edge frames. The first test (i.e. referred to as 1A) shall be conducted on this specimen and
the shaking is expected to cause more damage on the side without URM infill. The URM wall shall be
demolished after the first test giving us a structure with damage irregularity for the next test referred to
as ‘1B’. In case of Specimen-2, the transverse reinforcement ratio in columns was decreased (relative
to Specimen-1) in one edge frame and the middle frame while the other edge frame had the same
detailing as Specimen-1. A summary of properties of the specimens is presented in Table 1.

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QuakeCoRE-NCREE Blind Prediction Competition 2019

Table 1: Summary of Properties of Test Specimens

Specimen-1 Specimen-2
Scale Half
# of Stories 7 (with "soft" first storey)
RC frames in two orthogonal directions
Structural System RC shear walls in short floor-plan direction in storeys
2 through 8
1A) strength/stiffness
Source of torsional response eccentricity Strength degradation
1B) Damage irregularity

1A) URM infill in one Columns in two (of

edge frame three) frames with non-
Irregularity produced by
ductile detailing (reduced
1B) Damage on flexible transverse reinforcement)
side from test 1a
Dimensions 250 mm x 250 mm
Columns Long. Reinf. Ratio 2.6% from 8 # 5 bars
( Unit A')* Ductile detailing Non-ductile detailing
Transverse Reinf.
Same in all columns* Varies*
Dimensions (x-dir.) 250 mm x 400 mm
Longitudinal Ends: 4 #5 top and bottom
Beams Reinforcement Middle: 4 #5 top and bottom
(Unit A')* Dimensions (y-dir.) 250 mm x 450 mm
Longitudinal Ends: 6 #5 top and bottom
Reinforcement Middle: 4 #5 top and 6#5 bottom
Thickness 150 mm
Shear Walls Reinforcement Two layers of #3 bars spaced @ 150mm
Levels 2 through 8
Thickness 100 mm
Slabs
Reinforcement #3 bars spaced @ 150mm top and bottom
Compressive Nominal 21 MPa
Strength of
Concrete Measured 30 MPa (Avg, 28 days)** **
Nominal 280 MPa (D10 or #3 bars)
Yield Stress of Measured 334 MPa
Steel Nominal 420 MPa (D16 or #5, D19 or #6 bars)
Measured 469 MPa
Additional 2.3 tonf (at each storey from cast-in concrete block)
Weight
Total *** 136 tonf 132 tonf
Notes:
* See drawings for more details
** To be measured on test day (for concrete and masonry)
*** Including weight of pedestals in both cases and tie beams (only for Specimen-1)

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QuakeCoRE-NCREE Blind Prediction Competition 2019

Specifications of the NCREE earthquake simulator on which these tests are to be conducted are
presented in Table 2. The test structures described above shall be subjected to scaled versions of the
Eeat-West component of the ground motion recorded at Station CHY101 during the 1999 Chi-Chi
Taiwan Earthquake. The selected ground motion was scaled in time by a factor of 1/√2, and in
amplitude by a factor of 2.65 to obtain what will be referred to as the test record with 100% intensity.
Properties of the original and scaled test records are presented in Table 3. Acceleration and
displacement spectra for the test record obtained for 5% damping are shown in Fig 2.
Table 2: Properties of Earthquake Simulator at NCREE Tainan Lab (Source: NCREE)

6 Degrees-of-freedom 8m x 8m simulator
Maximum Payload 250 ton
Frequency of Operation 0.1-30Hz Uniaxial Sinusoidal Waveforms
Horizontal Axes (X and Y) Vertical Axis (Z)
Stroke: ± 1.0 m ± 0.4 m
± 2.0 m/s ± 1.0 m/s
Velocity:
(for 10 sec) (for 20 sec)
Acceleration:
250t Specimen ± 0.75 g ± 0.5 g
100t Specimen ± 1.4 g ± 0.8 g
Bare Table ± 2.5 g ± 3.0 g
500 tonf-m (bi-axial)
Overturning Moment:
1000 tonf-m (uni-axial)

Table 3: Properties of Source Ground Motion and Scaled Test Record

Original, CHY101E Scaled for Test,

1999 Chi-Chi ‘100% intensity’
Time Interval 0.005 0.0035
PGA (g) 0.34 0.9
PGV (m/s) 0.65 1.22
PGD (m) 0.35 0.46

3 160
Spectral Displacement, cm

140
Spectral Acceleration, g

2.5
120
2
100
1.5 80
60
1
40
0.5
20
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Period, sec Period, sec

Figure 2: Elastic Acceleration and Displacement Spectra for the Test Record (5 % Damping)

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QuakeCoRE-NCREE Blind Prediction Competition 2019

The tentative sequence of input shaking for Specimen-1 is shown in Table 4. This is subject to change
and the final sequence shall be provided after the test.
Table 4: Tentative sequence of ground motions for Specimen-1
Test 1A: Response to stiffness/strength irregularity
Experiment PGA, gal PGV, PGD,
Input* Duration
ID (g) cm/s cm
1A_WN1 White noise -
88.3
1A_10 10% 12 5 63.6sec
(0.09g)
1A_WN2 White noise -
177
1A_20 20% 24 9 63.6sec
(0.18g)
1A_WN3 White noise -
530
1A_60 60% 73 28 63.6sec
(0.54g)
1A_WN4 White noise -
706
1A_80 80% 97 37 63.6sec
(0.72g)
1A_WN5 White noise -
100% 883
1A_100 122 46 63.6sec
(Optional) (0.90g)

Note: URM Wall shall be demolished at the end of Test 1A

Test 1B: Response to irregularity caused by more damage on one side of the structure >

Experiment PGA, gal PGV, PGD,

Input* Duration
ID (g) cm/s cm
1B_WN1 White noise -
177
1B_20 20% 24 9 63.6sec
(0.18g)
1B_WN2 White noise -
530
1B_60_1 60% 73 28 63.6sec
(0.54g)
1B_WN3 White noise -
530
1B_60_2 60% 73 28 63.6sec
(0.54g)
1B_WN4 White noise -
60% 530
1B_60_3 73 28 63.6sec
(Optional) (0.54g)
1B_WN5 White noise -
100% 883
1A_100 122 46 63.6sec
(Optional) (0.90g)

*
Values in % are amplitudes relative to the record referred to as the ‘test ground motion, 100%’
uploaded on the website