Sensequake Partnership
Our partnership with Sensequake™ allows us to preform structural health monitoring, risk assessments, and seismic evaluations of buildings in a more detailed way than we have ever done before. We use highly-sensitive testing equipment to measure the ambient vibrations throughout the structure. This method has already been used to analyze multiple landmark buildings throughout North America.
With our partnership with Sensequake™, we can provide these services:
Baseline Analysis
Simplified Baseline
- Simplified Ambient Vibration Test
- Derivation of main modes, natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios
- This test creates a baseline that may be used for future comparisons and structural health monitoring
- Obtained data can be used to calibrate finite element models, increasing their reliability and creating more cost-efficient retrofit schemes
Complete Baseline
- Accurate Natural frequency derivation
- Mode shape rendering and damping ratio derivation
- Accurate derivation of higher modes and torsional modes of irregular structures
- This test creates a baseline that may be used for future comparisons and health monitoring
- Detailed report of finding by their team of experts
- Obtained data can be used to calibrate finite element models, increasing their reliability and creating more cost-efficient retrofit schemes
Non-destructive Condition Assessments
Our technology can be applied to highly specific project needs:
- Assessing in-place flexibility of building floors and roofs
- Creating a specialized analysis for specific structural components such as joints to understand the true behavior of the structure
- Identifying the integrity discontinuity within structures or between structural blocks
- Evaluating the required net-gap between structural blocks to mitigate the seismic impact hazard
- Determining lateral stiffness derivation per story
- Detecting soft-stories
- Finding resonance frequencies of floors and machinery to mitigate excessive floor vibrations
- Creating a modal analysis of walls for blast-tests
Seismic Damage Predication
Global Level
Comparing the global seismic demands with the damage thresholds of various standards and codes:
- Global Seismic evaluation of structural components based on HAZUS and ASCE 41-13 criteria
- Seismic evaluation of drift-sensitive non-structural components such as infill walls
- Seismic evaluation of acceleration-sensitive non-structural components such as piping systems, suspension ceilings, and general equipment
Component Level
An in-depth, component-based analysis where the simulated seismic demands are compared to the FEMA P58 Standards allowing us to quantify:
- Component-level damage severity
- Repair time estimations
- Expected repair costs
Seismic Analysis
Calculation of global seismic demands based on time history analysis without finite element models including:
- Generating ground-motion time histories
- Retaining response histories such as drift ratios, displacements, accelerations, forces, base shear and overturning moments at any location and direction on the building
- Calculating maximum global seismic demands along the height of the building for the desired number of ground motions
- Modifying ambient vibration modal properties to converting them to the higher shaking level modal properties based on Sensequake proprietary databases.
- Determining displacement and acceleration response spectra at any location in the building
- Determining the static force to design non-structural components
- Having a two-phase finite element model optimization. Initial phase based on modal properties and a second phase by comparing the seismic demands generated b our approach and those of the model in order to calibrate it to the building’s actual properties within a desired accuracy.
Soil Classification
We can determine many parameters based on ambient vibration tests and our approach:
- Finding the resonance frequency of the subsurface soil
- Determining the fundamental site period
- Estimating the mean shear wave velocity of the uppermost 30 m
- Determining the depth of bedrock
- Determining the site classification and ground profile name
- Creating microzonation maps using the H/V technique
Vibration Monitoring
Our vibration test can be used to monitor excessive vibrations with our Larzé sensors. These can be run for long periods of time without direct access to electrical outlets and can alternatively be placed outdoors, regardless of the use-case.
Applications:
- Monitoring the vibration of sensitive equipment
- Monitoring of ground-borne vibrations
- Determining the transfer mobility
- Measuring the building coupling loss
- Conducting impact tests near construction zones
