| Abstract: | The dynamic properties of the twenty-two-story, steel-frame San Diego Gas and Electric Company Building in San Diego, California, have been determined experimentally in a series of co-operative tests between the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Los Angeles. The building was vibrated by two eccentric mass exciters capable of frequencies up to 10 c/sec and forces as much as 5000 Ib each. The natural frequencies, associated mode shapes and the amounts of damping were determined for the first six modes of vibration in each of the two translational directions, and also in torsion. The mode shapes and frequencies showed, in general, the regularity and uniformity that appears typical of many tall buildings, but the three fundamental modes (nominally NS, EW and torsion) of the structure showed a coupling of translational and rotational components to a degree that was unexpected in a building whose structural frame is essentially symmetric. It is believed that this may be a consequence of the exceptionally small differences among the three fundamental frequencies. The damping in the first eighteen modes of the structure varied from 1.6 to 4.4 per cent, with a slight tendency for the larger values to be associated with the higher modes. Of the simpler damping models that might be used for analysis of the building, constant modal damping appears most appropriate and stiffness or mass proportional damping would not be realistic. |
