The behavior of the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco, California inferred from earthquake and ambient shaking

Earthquake Spectra
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Abstract

The newly constructed tallest building designed in conformance with performance-based design procedure in San Francisco, California is a 61-story building equipped with an accelerometric array that recorded the January 4, 2018 M4.4 Berkeley earthquake. The building is designed with concrete core shear walls and perimeter gravity steel columns. The earthquake records as well as on-demand recorded ambient responses of the building are studied to determine its dynamic characteristics and building-specific behavior. At the level of shaking of either the earthquake or ambient excitation, the frequencies and low modal damping ratios (<2%) are similar. The building exhibits torsional behavior most likely due to abrupt asymmetrical changes in the size of the core shear wall. The translational and torsional modes during the earthquake are closely coupled, which leads to a beating effect, the period of which is calculable. Due to the relatively low-amplitude shaking during the earthquake, the drift ratios were small and did not cause any damage. It is expected that during stronger shaking levels, these characteristics may change.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title The behavior of the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco, California inferred from earthquake and ambient shaking
Series title Earthquake Spectra
DOI 10.1193/112918EQS273M
Volume 35
Issue 4
Year Published 2019
Language English
Publisher Sage Journals
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 27 p.
First page 1711
Last page 1737
Country United States
State California
City San Francisco
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