PSEUDODYNAMIC TESTS ON SMALL-SCALE STEEL MODELSUSING THE MODIFIED SIMILITUDE LAW

摘要

Although there are several experimental techniques to evaluate the seismic behavior and performance ofcivil structures, small-scale models in most of physical tests, instead of prototypes or large-scale models,would be used due to a limitation on capacities of testing equipments. However, the inelastic seismicresponse prediction of small-scale models has some discrepancies inherently because the similitude law isgenerally derived in the elastic range. Thus, a special attention is required to regard the seismic behaviorof small-scale models as one of prototypes. In this paper, differences between prototypes and small-scalemodels pseudodynamically tested on steel column specimens are investigated and an alternative tominimize them is suggested. In general, small-scale models could have the distorted stiffness inducedfrom some experimental errors on test setup, steel fabrication and so on. Therefore, a modified similitudelaw considering both a scale factor for length and a stiffness ratio of small-scale model to prototype isproposed. Using the modified similitude law to compensate experimental errors, the pseudodynamic testresults from modified small-scale model are much improved as compared with the results of prototype.According to the pseudodynamic test results of small-scale steel models, it can be concluded that themodified similitude law proposed could be effective in simulating the seismic response of prototypestructures.