LAUSR

In this article, we propose an interpretation of the propagation velocities of the pulse wave obtained in vertical structures through seismic interferometry by deconvolution. The novelty of this article is to propose a parametric study applied to canonical finite‐element models of fixed‐base buildings from pure‐shear to pure‐bending beam‐like buildings, adjusted to equivalent Timoshenko beam‐like structures. For given input seismic motions, the time histories of the horizontal displacement at each floor are obtained and used to estimate the propagation velocity of the pulse wave by deconvolution. A frequency–wavenumber technique is used to highlight the dispersive characteristics of the pulse wave. The obtained velocity is compared with the theoretical dispersion curve of the Timoshenko beam‐like structure and interpreted according to the nature of the structure. We propose a corrective coefficient to link the first resonance frequency of the building to the velocity obtained by deconvolution, according to the shear‐to‐bending ratio. Finally, we compare specific Timoshenko beam models with a number of previously published studies on the experimental interpretation of velocity in real‐case buildings for which soil–structure interaction conditions are different from the fixed‐base conditions of the Timoshenko beam‐like structure.