Performance extension of shaking table‐based real‐time dynamic hybrid testing through full state control via simulation

Abstract

Real-time dynamic hybrid testing (RTDHT) is a state-of-the-art experimental technique for evaluating the performance of a structural system subjected to time-varying loads. Because of the superiority of shaking table for testing rate-dependent and inertial effect existing in structural system, shaking table-based RTDHT is an important branch in RTDHT family, in which shaking table is used to impose inertial forces on physical substructure. Owing to the mass of the seismic platform, shaking table has a relatively narrow testing bandwidth akin to a stand-alone actuator RTDHT system. Furthermore, structure–table interaction confines the physical substructure to a very small mass and linear stage, such that shaking table-based RTDHT is unable to test the structural performance with consideration of high frequency input or non-linearity using large-scale physical substructure. Actually, this is why we develop RTDHT. In this work, a control strategy named full state control via simulation (FSCS) was proposed to extend the testing capacity of shaking table-based RTDHT. The efficiency of FSCS-controlled RTDHT for testing high frequency and non-linear structural performance was verified by a small- and large-scale shaking table-based RTDHT, respectively.