Author(s)

Mengdie Zhang ¹, Qian Li ¹, Bocheng Teng ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Seismic Engineering and Structural Diagnosis and Treatment, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

Corresponding Author

Mengdie Zhang

ABSTRACT

To address the inconsistency in distortion definitions for seismic simulation shaking tables, a comparative study was carried out on three distortion indices, namely the fundamental-referenced total harmonic distortion, the rms-referenced distortion, and the peak distortion, based on measured sinusoidal response data from a 2.4 m × 2.4 m biaxial seismic simulation shaking table. The results indicate that the fundamental-referenced total harmonic distortion and the rms-referenced distortion exhibit similar trends within the low-to-moderate distortion range, whereas the former has a clearer physical meaning and is more suitable as the primary index for evaluating sinusoidal waveform quality. The peak distortion is more sensitive to local abnormal spectral peaks and can therefore be used as a supplementary diagnostic index.

KEYWORDS

Seismic Simulation Shaking Table; Distortion; Waveform Quality Evaluation; Total Harmonic Distortion; Harmonic Analysis

CITE THIS PAPER

Mengdie Zhang, Qian Li, Bocheng Teng. Comparative Study on Distortion Evaluation Methods for Seismic Simulation Vibration Table. Journal of Civil Engineering and Urban Planning (2026). Vol. 8, No.1, 192-202. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/jceup.2026.080119.

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