Case Study

Modelling the Dynamic Behaviour of Buildings

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is one of the world's leading centres for research and advice in building construction. LUSAS Civil & Structural is being used in the Dynamic Loading and System Identification Section for predicting structural response to dynamic loads, evaluating structural behaviour, verifying proposed analytical methods and comparing results from experimental studies.

In one particular study, a full-size test building has been constructed at the BRE Cardington site. Of steel framed construction, it has eight storeys with a total height of 33.5m and covers a plan area of 45m x 21m. A variety of tests are being performed on the building including static, dynamic, blast and fire testing. In parallel with the dynamic testing LUSAS has been used to model five different construction stages from a pure steel frame to a complete building with applied loads.

The aim of the study was to obtain results from LUSAS in addition to site measurements so that the dynamic behaviour of the building at each stage of its construction could be better understood. The modelling and experimental studies were performed independently but they are mutually beneficial. A numerical prediction of one particular dynamic behaviour of the building provided guidance for further tests while the LUSAS model was refined using experimental results at each stage of construction to provide an improved structural idealisation. Although all buildings are unique, the experience gained from deriving a better structural idealisation in this case will be useful when modelling other steel-framed building structures.