A preliminary study on the response of steel structures using surveillance camera image with vision-based method during the Great East Japan Earthquake

•Seismic records of 11 steel buildings were summarized and listed.•A new vision based method is proposed for displacement measurement.•Displacement response and periods of 10 high-rise steel buildings were obtained.•Steel structures had experienced an extensive vibration.•Displacement response of high-rise buildings was showed very large.

Steel structures had experienced an intense and long transient response caused by the great earthquake motion during the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11th March 2011. Lots of non-structural damages such as ceiling fallen and glass broken are the main damage characteristics of steel structures although there were rarely structural damages. Some opened earthquake records and videos were adopted in this study in order to investigate the seismic behavior of the steel structures. An application of vision-based method has been carried out on a video of surveillance camera provided by Japan Broadcasting Corporation (Nippon Housou Kyoukai) to obtain the displacement response and natural period of the high-rise steel buildings in Tokyo.