Jerk-based damage assessment and classification in RC frame buildings exposed to seismic actions

Jerk is the rate of change of an object’s acceleration in time. In this paper, an examination of the influence of jerk on the damage of RC frame buildings exposed to seismic actions was performed. First, the possibilities for jerk determination, when sensors are unavailable, were discussed. The research was conducted by using the experimental data, obtained from three RC frame buildings exposed to shake table tests. Two 3-story and one 5-storey building, tested at the E-Defense facility in Miki City, Hyogo, Japan, were considered. Peak absolute jerks in the considered buildings were presented and analyzed. Among others, it was found that there is no obvious correlation between the times at which peak absolute accelerations and jerks occur. In some cases, peak values occur at similar time instances, whereas in others they are related to quite different ones. Afterwards, jerk energy, its curvature, and novel damage index, were introduced and explained, and a proposal of a new method for the structural damage assessment and classification was provided. Its practical application was demonstrated on the three considered RC frame buildings, and promising results were obtained and discussed in the paper. The proposed method is quite straightforward; it can provide a quick assessment of the structural response in terms of nonlinearity and damage, both for the foundations and superstructure; and it can contribute to the further development of structural health monitoring techniques.