Statistical reference values for control performance assessment of seismic shake table testing

Abstract

Shake table testing has been regarded as one of the most effective experimental approaches to evaluate seismic response of structural systems subjected to earthquakes. However, reproducing a prescribed acceleration time history precisely over the frequency of interest is challenging because shake table test systems are eventually nonlinear by nature. In addition, interaction between the table and specimen could affect the control accuracy of shake table testing significantly. Various novel control algorithms have been proposed to improve the control accuracy of shake table testing; however, reference values for control performance assessment remain rare. In this study, reference values for control performance assessment of shake table testing are specified based on the statistical analyses of 1,209 experimental data provided by the Seismic Simulator Laboratory of National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan. Three individual reference values are considered for the assessment including the root-mean-square error of the achieved acceleration time history; the percentage of the spectral acceleration that exceeds the determined tolerance range over the frequency of interest; and the error-ratio of the achieved peak ground acceleration. Quartiles of the real experimental data in terms of the three objective variables are obtained, providing users with solid and simple references to evaluate the control performance of shake table testing. Finally, a set of experimental data of a newly developed control framework implementation for uni-axial shake tables are used as an application example to demonstrate the significant improvement of control accuracy according to the reference values provided in this study.