Responses of Two Tall Buildings in Tokyo,Japan,before,during,and after the M9.0 Tohoku Earthquake of 11 March 2011

Abstract

The 11 March 2011 M 9.0 Tohoku earthquake generated significant long duration shaking that propagated hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter and affected urban areas throughout much of Honshu. Recorded responses of tall buildings at several hundred km from the epicenter of the main shock and other events show tall buildings were affected by long-period motions of events at distant sources. This study presents behavioral aspects of 29-story and 30-story neighboring buildings in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, Japan, as inferred from records retrieved from a sparse array of accelerometers deployed in the superstructures, at ground and 100 m below the ground level over a time interval covering before, during, and after the main shock. Such long-period effects are common in several regions of Japan as well as in the United States and in other seismically active countries. Permanent shifts in fundamental frequencies are observed. Drift ratios indicate possible structural nonlinear behavior occurred during the main shock. The need to consider risks to built environments from distant sources, including those in neighboring countries, is emphasized.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abazarsa

Nateghi

Ghahari

S. F.

and Taciroglu

2014. Blind identification of non-classically damped systems, Earthquake Spectra 29, 1137–1157.

Anderson

J. P

Bodin

Brune

J. N.

Prince

Singh

S. K.

Quass

and Onate

1986. Strong ground motion from the Michoacan, Mexico, earthquake, Science 233, 1043–1049.

Auger

and Flandrin

1995. Improving the readability of time-frequency and time-scale representations by the reassignment method, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 43, 1068–1089.

Auger

Flandrin

Goncalves

and Lemoine

1996. Time-Frequency Toolbox for use with MATLAB, Tutorial, CNRS (France) and Rice University (www.nongnu.org/tftb/tutorial.pdf; last accessed September 10, 2013), pp. 150.

Bielak

1971. Earthquake Response of Building-Foundation Systems, Ph.D. Thesis, Report EERL 71-04, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Boore

and Atkinson

2008. Ground-motion prediction equations for the average horizontal component of PGA, PGV, and 5%-damped PSA at spectral periods between 0.01 s and 10.0 s, Earthquake Spectra 24, 99–138.

Brownjohn

J. M. W.

and Pan

T. C.

2001. Response of tall buildings to weak long distance earthquakes, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 30, 709–729.

Browning

J. A.

Y. R.

Lynn

and Moehle

J. P.

2000. Performance assessment for a reinforced concrete frame building, Earthquake Spectra 16, 541–555.

Çelebi

Prince

Dietel

Onate

and Chavez

1987. The culprit in Mexico City—Amplification of motions, Earthquake Spectra 3, 315–328.

10.

Çelebi

1996. Comparison of damping in buildings under low-amplitude and strong motions, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 59, 309–323.

11.

Çelebi

Sanli

Sinclair

Gallant

and Radulescu

2004. Real-time seismic monitoring needs of a building owner and the solution – A cooperative effort, Earthquake Spectra 20, 333–346.

12.

Çelebi

2008. Real-time monitoring of drift for occupancy resumption, in Proceedings 14^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 13–17 October 2008, Beijing, China.

13.

Çelebi

Okawa

Kashima

Koyama

and Iiba

2014. Response of a tall building far from the epicenter of the March 11, 2011 M = 9.0 Great East Japan earthquake and its aftershocks, The Wiley Journal of the Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings 23, 427–441.

14.

Çelebi

Okawa

Kashima

Koyama

and Iiba

2012a. Response of a tall building far from the epicenter of the March 11, 2011 M = 9.0 Great East Japan earthquake and its aftershocks, Paper No. 0291. in Proceedings 15^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 24–28 September 2012, Lisbon, Portugal.

15.

Çelebi

Okawa

and Kashima

2012b. March 11, 2011 M = 9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and Aftershocks: The story of a 9-story building retrofitted, damaged during, and repaired after the mainshock, Paper No. 0292, in Proceedings 15^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 24–28 September 2012, Lisbon, Portugal).

16.

Chang

and Pakzad

S. N.

2012. SMIT v1.0 (http://smit.atlss.lehigh.edu) (Jul. 31. 2012).

17.

Chen

W. F.

and Yamaguchi

1996. Spotlight on steel moment frames, ASCE Civil Engineering, March 1996, pp. 44–46.

18.

Fairweather

1996. Seismic solutions for steel frame buildings, ASCE Civil Engineering, March 1996, pp. 40–43.

19.

FEMA-352, 2000. Recommended Post-earthquake Evaluation and Repair Criteria for Welded Steel Moment Frame Buildings (also SAC 2000).

20.

FEMA-354, 2000. A policy guide to steel moment-frame construction, 2000, 25 p.

21.

Fukuwa

and Ghannad

M. A.

1996. Soil-structure interaction effects of the eigenproperties of structure. in Proceedings Eleventh World Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, Paper No. 949, Elsevier Science Ltd., CD-ROM.

22.

Ghahari

S. F.

Ghannad

M. A.

and Taciroglu

2013a. Blind identification of soil-structure systems, Soil Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering 45, 56–69.

23.

Ghahari

S. F.

Abazarsa

Ghannad

M. A.

and Taciroglu

2013b. Response-only identification of structures using strong motion data, Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 42, 1221–1242.

24.

Haskell

N. A.

1953. The dispersion of surface waves on multi-layered media, Bull. Seismological Soc. Am. 43, 17–34.

25.

Haskell

N. A.

1960. Crustal reflection of plane SH waves, J. Geophysical Res. 65, 4147–4150.

26.

Hisada

Yamashita

Murakami

Kubo

Shindo

Aizawa

and Arata

2012a. Seismic response and damage of high-rise buildings in Tokyo, Japan, during the Great East Japan earthquake, in Proceedings Int'l Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, 1–4 March, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.

27.

Hisada

Yamashita

Murakami

Kubo , Arata

Shindo

and Aizawa

2012b. Seismic response and damage of high-rise buildings in Tokyo, Japan, during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, in Proceedings 15^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, September 2012, Lisbon, Portugal.

28.

Hodgson

J. J.

1964. Earthquakes and Earth Structure, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

29.

Hosozawa

Kimura

and Aono

2012. Seismic retrofit of high-rise building with deformation-dependent oil dampers, in Proceedings 2nd International Conference on Architectural Translations through the Silk Road, 14–16 July, 2012, Nishinomiya, Japan.

30.

Jahankhah

Ghannad

M. A.

and Mohammad

T. R.

2013. Alternative solution for kinematic interaction problem of soil-structure systems with embedded foundation, The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings 22, 251–266.

31.

Juang

J. N.

and Pappa

R. S.

1985. An eigensystem realization algorithm for modal parameter identification and model reduction, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics 8, 620–627.

32.

Juang

J. N.

Phan

Horta

L. G.

and Longman

R. W.

1993. Identification of observer/Kalman filter Markov parameters: Theory and experiments, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics 16, 320–329.

33.

Juang

J. N.

1994. Applied System Identification, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, N.J.

34.

Kashima

Koyama

Okawa

and Iiba

2012. Strong Motion Records in Buildings from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Paper No. 1768, in Proceedings 15^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal.

35.

Kubo

Hisada

Murakami

Kosuge

and Hamano

2011. Application of an earthquake early warning system and a real-time strong motion monitoring system in emergency response in a high-rise building, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 31, 231–239.

36.

Luco

1980. Soil-structure interaction and identification of structural models, in Proc. 2^nd ASCE Conf. on Civil Engng. and Nuclear Power, Paper 10-1, pp. 1–31.

37.

Mathworks, 2013. Matlab and Toolboxes, South Natick, MA.

38.

MLIT, 2010a. Code draft for the retrofit of existing high-rise buildings and design guidelines for new high-rise buildings, available at http://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/house05_hh_000218.html (in Japanese).

39.

MLIT, 2010b. Request for Public Comments, on Earthquake Countermeasures for High-Rise Buildings, Dec.

40.

Nakamura

1989. A method for dynamic characteristics estimation of subsurface using micro-tremor on the ground surface, Railway Technical Research Institute, Quarterly Reports, 30, 25–33.

41.

Nakamura

2000. Clear identification of fundamental idea of Nakamura's technique and its applications, Proceedings 12^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Auckland, New Zealand.

42.

Okawa

(coordinator), 2010. Study on the safety countermeasures for super-high-rise buildings etc. against the long-period earthquake ground motions, BRI Research Data 127, 1–453 (in Japanese).

43.

Okawa

Kashima

Koyama

Iiba

and Çelebi

2012. Summary of recorded building responses during the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku earthquake with some implications to design motions, in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned from the the Giant Earthquake—One year the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, 1–4 March, 2012, Kenchiku–Kaikan, Tokyo Japan. [CD-ROM Proceedings].

44.

Rahmani

and Todorovska

2014. Structural health monitoring of a 54-story steel frame building using wave method and earthquake records, Earthquake Spectra (in print).

45.

SAC Joint Venture, 2000. Recommended post-earthquake evaluation and repair criteria for welded steel moment-frame buildings, Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA 352, Washington, D.C.

46.

Safak

1995. Detection and identification of soil-structure interaction in buildings from vibration recordings, ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering 121, 899–906.

47.

Stewart

J. P.

and Fenves

G. L.

1998. System identification for evaluating soil–structure interaction effects in buildings from strong motion recordings, Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 27, 869–885.

48.

Takewaki

Murakami

Fujita

Yoshitomi

and Tsuji

2011. The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku earthquake and response of high-rise buildings under long-period ground motions, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 31, 1511–1528.

49.

Tezcan

S. S.

and Ipek

1972. Long distance effects of the 29 March 1970 Gediz, Turkey earthquake, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 1, 203–215.

50.

The Building Center of Japan (BCJ), 2001a. Time history response analysis building performance evaluation manual, Technical appraisal Department, Structural safety Section Report No: BR KO-02-01 (adopted 1 June 2000, amended 25 April 2001).

51.

The Building Center of Japan (BCJ), 2001b. Manual for time history response analysis of building performance evaluation manual, Technical Appraisal Department, Structural Safety Section Report No: BR KO-02-01 (adopted 1 June 2000, amended 25 April 2001).

52.

Todorovska

M. I.

2009a. Soil-structure system identification of Millikan Library north-south response during four earthquakes (1970–2002): What caused the observed wandering of the system frequencies? Bulletin of Seismological Society of America 99, 626–635.

53.

Todorovska

M. I.

2009b. Seismic interferometry of a soil-structure interaction model with coupled horizontal and rocking response, Bulletin of Seismological Society of America 99, 611–625.

54.

Trifunac

M. D.

and Brady

A. G.

1975. A study on the duration of strong earthquake ground motion, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 65, 581–626.

55.

United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2011a. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/ (last accessed 15 July 2011).

56.

United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2011b. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1952_07_21.php (last accessed 15 July 2011).

57.

United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2011c. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/se082311a/#summary (last accessed 15 July 2011).