Vibration Characteristics of HP Shell Water Tower

T. Maeda, Y. Sugiura & N. Kurauchi

Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
Waseda University, Tokyo, JAPAN

Tower-like HP shell structures have scarcely built for a water tower in Japan recently, however, in
order to let them survive with reasonable retrofit reinforcements to meet the current seismic load
requirements, it is necessary to evaluate their ultimate strength instead of the formerly applied
admissible stress design approach. We have measured micro-tremor in the real water tower of 40m
high and excited the structure with manpower to find soil-coupled and base-fixed vibration
characteristics of the structure. Moreover, we have measured micro-tremor on the ground surface
around the structure and simulated H/V spectra with the Rayleigh wave fundamental mode to help
incorporate proper soil model into soil coupled FEM model. This holistic experimental approach
works well for modeling the superstructure and the soil to evaluate much larger elastic modulus of
concrete than expected from the design specifications of the structure.
KEYWORDS: HP shell, Water tower, Micro-tremor, Soil-Structure interaction, H/V spectrum.