TY - JFULL AU - Tarek M. Alguhane and Ayman H. Khalil and M. N. Fayed and Ayman M. Ismail PY - 2015/4/ TI - Ambient Vibration Testing of Existing Buildings in Madinah T2 - International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering SP - 309 EP - 315 VL - 9 SN - 1307-6892 UR - https://publications.waset.org/pdf/10000856 PU - World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology NX - Open Science Index 99, 2015 N2 - The elastic period has a primary role in the seismic assessment of buildings. Reliable calculations and/or estimates of the fundamental frequency of a building and its site are essential during analysis and design process. Various code formulas based on empirical data are generally used to estimate the fundamental frequency of a structure. For existing structures, in addition to code formulas and available analytical tools such as modal analyses, various methods of testing including ambient and forced vibration testing procedures may be used to determine dynamic characteristics. In this study, the dynamic properties of the 32 buildings located in the Madinah of Saudi Arabia were identified using ambient motions recorded at several, spatially-distributed locations within each building. Ambient vibration measurements of buildings have been analyzed and the fundamental longitudinal and transverse periods for all tested buildings are presented. The fundamental mode of vibration has been compared in plots with codes formulae (Saudi Building Code, EC8, and UBC1997). The results indicate that measured periods of existing buildings are shorter than that given by most empirical code formulas. Recommendations are given based on the common design and construction practice in Madinah city. ER -