A Study of Experimental Control Methods for Real-time Hybrid Simulation

A Study of Experimental Control Methods for Real-time Hybrid Simulation

Real-time hybrid simulation(RTHS) is an innovative experimental technology for evaluating the dynamic responses of structural systems under seismic loading. It requires high quality measurements, accurate control of actuators, and refined signal processing to perform versatile and reliable experiments. In this research, a second order discrete adaptive phase lead compensator(PLC) and a restoring force compensator(RFC) have been proposed to enhance the experimental accuracy of RTHS containing rate-independent specimens. In addition, RTHS of a smart base-isolation system with a semi-actively controlled magneto-rheological(MR) damper was physically tested. Experimental results demonstrated that the adaptive second-order PLC can lead to fair test results for rate-dependent components. Finally, RTHS of a nine-story shear building controlled by MR dampers was conducted. Experimental results showed that the adaptive model-based feedforward-feedback control method achieves excellent displacement tracking for RTHS.