A model‐driven method based on multisource data for reproducing displacement time history

The seismic displacement time history of a structure is very important for damage assessment. This paper proposes a displacement estimation method based on multisource measurement data. In this method, the structure is simplified to a mass-spring shear model, where a set of tunable parameters are assigned. The particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to search for the optimal values of the parameters, and the objective of the optimization problem is to minimize the difference between the measured roof response and that calculated by the model. A refined finite element model was established in ABAQUS, and the numerical calculation results were used to verify this proposed method. Results show that the estimation error of the maximum inter-story drift ratio among all floors is 8.9%, and the average error of the maximum displacement of each floor is 7.0%, representing a satisfactory estimation effectiveness. The source of the errors is discussed, and we find that this method is more suitable for low-rise buildings. Shaking table tests of a scaled four-story reinforced concrete (RC) frame were conducted, and the estimation error of the maximum inter-story drift ratio among all floors was 6.1%, indicating the feasibility of this method in practice.