Seismic responses of two adjacent buildings. II. Interaction

Presented in this part of the two-part paper is a study of the relations between earthquake motions recorded from two, adjacent, seven-story buildings, from a downhole below the foundation of one of the buildings and from three free-field sites, all within one city block. This unique data set was obtained during the Whittier-Narrows, Calif. earthquake of Oct. 1, 1987, Part I includes background information on the two buildings, the site, and the data set. Building response characteristics of a code-type instrumented building (A) and an extensively instrumented building (B) are also studied. In this part, spectral analysis techniques are used to study the relationships between the motions of the roofs and basements, the downhole and the free-field sites. It is asserted that there is building-soil-building interaction between the two buildings at a frequency of 2.35 Hz. Furthermore, the free-field motions are shown to be influenced by the presence of the buildings.