A Benchmark Testing System for Real-Time Hybrid Simulation Development

Abstract

The hybrid simulation method for earthquake engineering, which combines numerical simulation and physical experimentation, was developed to evaluate the seismic performance of civil structural systems. While significant improvement has been made in hybrid simulation techniques, there remain great challenges in computational algorithms and control compensations for real-time operation. Recently a versatile hybrid testing system was built at Western Michigan University consisting of a shake table, an actuator/reaction system and an advanced hybrid testing controller. Such testing system is capable of conducting various real-time hybrid simulation experiments such as displacement-based pseudodynamic substructure testing as well as force-based real-time dynamic hybrid testing. Due to its versatility and easy operation at the benchmark scale, the testing system is particularly suitable for the development of advanced hybrid simulation techniques and earthquake engineering education/outreach activities. The development of this testing system including both hardware and software integration is described. A three story shake table substructure test and several slow and real-time pseudodynamic tests are presented as examples to demonstrate the system’s capability and feasibility.