Development of a versatile hybrid testing system for seismic experimentation

• Published in: Experimental techniques (Westport, Conn.) Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 44 - 60
• Main Authors: Shao, X., Enyart, G.
• Format: Journal Article Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.11.2014; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ACTUATORS; BENCHMARKS; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; COMPUTER CODES; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; Design of experiments; EARTHQUAKES; ENGINEERING; Hybrid Testing; HYDRAULICS; LOADING; Materials Science; OPERATION; Seismic Experimentation; Seismology; Substructuring; Technical Article; Test methods; Testing System; Testing System; Substructuring; Hybrid Testing; Seismic Experimentation
• ISSN: 0732-8818; 1747-1567
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-1567.2012.00837.x

The hybrid testing method for earthquake engineering was developed to evaluate the seismic performance of civil structural systems. During hybrid testing, part of the structure, called physical substructure , is physically tested using hydraulic loading equipment while the rest of the structure, named numerical substructure , is numerically simulated with a computer model. Thus, hybrid testing allows a complex physical substructure being tested experimentally, while the relatively simple part of the structure is numerically simulated to economically obtain the full structural response. 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 a testing system is capable of conducting various seismic experiments such as displacement-based pseudodynamic substructure testing as well as force-based real time dynamic hybrid testing . Because of its versatility and easy operation at the benchmark scale, the developed testing system is particularly suitable for the development of advanced hybrid testing techniques and, earthquake engineering education/outreach activities. The development of the testing system is described in this article focusing on the hardware and software integrations. A three story shake table hybrid test is presented as an example to demonstrate the system’s capability and feasibility.