Tall buildings are one of the few constructed facilities whose design relies solely upon analytical and scaled models, which, though based upon fundamental mechanics and years of research and experience, lack thorough full-scale validation. In response to this deficiency, the Chicago Full-Scale Monitoring Program was instituted and has been continuously monitoring the responses of three tall buildings in Chicago since 2002, expanding recently to additional buildings internationally. Observations made through this program, while showing general agreement between measured and predicted behaviors, have also highlighted some discrepancies between the projected periods of vibration using finite element models and the in-situ periods drawn from full-scale data. The implications with respect to predicted accelerations are presented in this study, various techniques for modeling elements of the lateral systems of these buildings are explored, and sensitivity analyses are conducted to direct the physically-meaningful calibrations of these finite element models to the full-scale observations.
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