• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.169-183
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• 2014

For the reliable design of substructure supporting offshore wind turbines it is very important to reduce the effects of wave forces. Since the substructure is strongly influenced by the effects of wave forces as the size of substructure increases. In the present study, the hybrid substructure with multi-cylinder is newly suggested to reduce the effects of wave forces. Using diffraction theory the scattering waves in a fluid region are expressed by an Eigenfunction expansion method with three dimensional potential theory to calculate the wave force acting on the hybrid substructure. The wave force and wave run-up acting on the hybrid substructure is presented to examine the water wave interaction according to the variation of cylindrical size and the distance among cylinders. It is found that the suggested hybrid substructure with multi-cylinder is very useful to reduce the effects of wave forces acting on the substructure for offshore wind turbines.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1055-1079
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• 2014

Substructure shake table testing is a class of real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS). It combines shake table tests of substructures with real-time computational simulation of the remaining part of the structure to assess dynamic response of the entire structure. Unlike in the conventional hybrid simulation, substructure shake table testing imposes acceleration compatibilities at substructure boundaries. However, acceleration tracking of shake tables is extremely challenging, and it is not possible to produce perfect acceleration tracking without time delay. If responses of the experimental substructure have high correlation with ground accelerations, response errors are inevitably induced by the erroneous input acceleration. Feeding the erroneous responses into the RTHS procedure will deteriorate the simulation results. This study presents a set of techniques to enable reliable substructure shake table testing. The developed techniques include compensation techniques for errors induced by imperfect input acceleration of shake tables, model-based actuator delay compensation with state observer, and force correction to eliminate process and measurement noises. These techniques are experimentally investigated through RTHS using a uni-axial shake table and three-story steel frame structure at the Johns Hopkins University. The simulation results showed that substructure shake table testing with the developed compensation techniques provides an accurate and reliable means to simulate the dynamic responses of the entire structure under earthquake excitations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.349-358
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• 2023

Real-Time Hybrid Testing (RTHT) requires the numerical substructure calculations to be completed within the defined integration time interval due to its real-time loading demands. For solving the problem, A Real-Time Hybrid Testing based on Restart-Loading Technology (RTHT-RLT) is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, in case of the numerical substructure calculations cannot be completed within the defined integration time interval, the experimental substructure was returned back to the initial state statically. When the newest loading commands were calculated by the numerical substructure, the experimental substructure was restarted loading from the initial state to the newest loading commands so as to precisely disclosing the dynamic performance of the experimental substructure. Firstly, the methodology of the RTHT-RLT is proposed. Furthermore, the numerical simulations and experimental tests on one frame structure with a viscous damper are conducted for evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed RTHT-RLT. It is shown that the proposed RTHT-RLT innovatively renders the nonreal-time refined calculation of the numerical substructure feasible for the RTHT. The numerical and experimental results show that the proposed RTHT-RLT exhibits excellent performance in terms of stability and accuracy. The proposed RTHT-RLT may have broad application prospects for precisely investigating the dynamic behavior of large and complex engineering structures with specific experimental substructure where a restarting procedure does not affect the relevant hysteretic response.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.715-732
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• 2020

High-strength steel composite Y-eccentrically braced frame (Y-HSS-EBF) is a novel structural system. In this study, the spatial substructure hybrid simulation test (SHST) method is used to further study the seismic performance of Y-HSS-EBF. Firstly, based on the cyclic loading tests of two single-story single-span Y-HSS-EBF planar specimens, a finite element model in OpenSees was verified to provide a reference for the numerical substructure analysis model for the later SHST. Then, the SHST was carried out on the OpenFresco test platform. A three-story spatial Y-HSS-EBF model was taken as the prototype, the top story was taken as the experimental substructure, and the remaining two stories were taken as the numerical substructure to be simulated in OpenSees. According to the test results, the validity of the SHST was verified, and the main seismic performance indexes of the SHST model were analyzed. The results show that, the SHST based on the OpenFresco platform has good stability and accuracy, and the results of the SHST agree well with the global numerical model of the structure. Under strong seismic action, the plastic deformation of Y-HSS-EBF mainly occurs in the shear link, and the beam, beam-columns and braces can basically remain in the elastic state, which is conducive to post-earthquake repair.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.381-397
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• 2021

Based on the spatial substructure hybrid simulation test (SHST) method, the seismic performance of a high-strength steel composite K-eccentrically braced frame (K-HSS-EBF) structure system is studied. First, on the basis of the existing pseudostatic experiments, a numerical model corresponding to the experimental model was established using OpenSees, which mainly simulated the shear effect of the shear links. A three-story and five-span spatial K-HSS-EBF was taken as the prototype, and SHST was performed with a half-scale SHST model. According to the test results, the validity of the SHST model was verified, and the main seismic performance indexes of the experimental substructure under different seismic waves were studied. The results show that the hybrid simulation results are basically consistent with the numerical simulation results of the global structure. The deformation of each story is mainly concentrated in the web of the shear link owing to shear deformation. The maximum interstory drifts of the model structure during Strength Level Earthquake (SLE) and Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) meet the demands of interstory limitations in the Chinese seismic design code of buildings. In conclusion, the seismic response characteristics of the K-HSS-EBFs are successfully simulated using the spatial SHST, which shows that the K-HSS-EBFs have good seismic performance.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2024

The investigation on vehicle-bridge coupling system (VBCS) is crucial in bridge design, bridge condition evaluation, and vehicle overload control. A real-time hybrid testing (RTHT) method for VBCS (RTHT-VBCS) is proposed in this paper for accurately and economically disclosing the dynamic performance of VBCSs. In the proposed method, one of the carriages is chosen as the experimental substructure loaded by servo-hydraulic actuator loading system in the laboratory, and the remaining carriages as well as the bridge structure are chosen as the numerical substructure numerically simulated in one computer. The numerical substructure and the experimental substructure are synchronized at their coupling points in terms of force equilibrium and deformation compatibility. Compared to the traditional iteration experimental method and the numerical simulation method, the proposed RTHT-VBCS method could not only obtain the dynamic response of VBCS, but also economically analyze various working conditions. Firstly, the theory of RTHT-VBCS is proposed. Secondly, numerical models of VBCS for RTHT method are presented. Finally, the feasibility and accuracy of the RTHT-VBCS are preliminarily validated by real-time hybrid simulations (RTHSs). It is shown that, the proposed RTHT-VBCS is feasible and shows great advantages over the traditional methods, and the proposed models can effectively represent the VBCS for RTHT method in terms of the force equilibrium and deformation compatibility at the coupling point. It is shown that the results of the single-degree-of-freedom model and the train vehicle model are match well with the referenced results. The RTHS results preliminarily prove the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed RTHT-VBCS.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2020

Substructure pseudo-dynamic hybrid simulation (SPDHS) combining the advantages of physical experiments and numerical simulation has become an important testing method for evaluating the dynamic responses of structures. Various parameter identification methods have been proposed for online model updating. However, if there is large model gap between the assumed numerical models and the real models, the parameter identification methods will cause large prediction errors. This study presents an ANN (artificial neural network) method based on forgetting factor. During the SPDHS of model updating, a dynamic sample window is formed in each loading step with forgetting factor to keep balance between the new samples and historical ones. The effectiveness and anti-noise ability of this method are evaluated by numerical analysis of a six-story frame structure with BRBs (Buckling Restrained Brace). One BRB is simulated in OpenFresco as the experimental substructure, while the rest is modeled in MATLAB. The results show that ANN is able to present more hysteresis behaviors that do not exist in the initial assumed numerical models. It is demonstrated that the proposed method has good adaptability and prediction accuracy of restoring force even under different loading histories.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1151-1172
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• 2014

This paper presents a user programmable computational/control platform developed to conduct real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS). The architecture of this platform is based on the integration of a real-time controller and a field programmable gate array (FPGA).This not only enables the user to apply user-defined control laws to control the experimental substructures, but also provides ample computational resources to run the integration algorithm and analytical substructure state determination in real-time. In this platform the need for SCRAMNet as the communication device between real-time and servo-control workstations has been eliminated which was a critical component in several former RTHS platforms. The accuracy of the servo-hydraulic actuator displacement control, where the control tasks get executed on the FPGA was verified using single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) and 2 degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) experimental substructures. Finally, the functionality of the proposed system as a robust and reliable RTHS platform for performance evaluation of structural systems was validated by conducting real-time hybrid simulation of a three story nonlinear structure with SDOF and 2DOF experimental substructures. Also, tracking indicators were employed to assess the accuracy of the results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1138-1149
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• 1993

A new mode synthesis method using Lagrange multipliers and substructure hybrid interface modes is presented. Substruture governing equations of motion are derived using Lagrange equations and the constraints of geometric compatibility between the substructures are treated with Lagrange multipliers. Fixed, free, and loaded interface modes can be employed for the modal bases of each substructure. In cases of the fixed and loaded interface modes, two successive modal transformation relations are used. Compared with the conventional mode synthesis methods, the suggested method does not construct the equations of motion of the coupled structure and the final characteristic equation becomes a polynomial. Only modal parameters of each substructure and geometric compatibility conditions are needed. The suggested method is applied to a simple lumped mass model and parametric study is performed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1325-1348
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• 2015

Real-time hybrid testing (RTHT) involves virtual splitting of the structure into two parts: physical substructure that contains the key region of interest which is tested in a laboratory and numerical substructure that contains the remaining part of the structure in the form of a numerical model. This paper numerically assesses four step-by-step integration methods (Central difference method (CDM), Operator splitting method (OSM), Rosenbrock based method (RBM) and CR-integration method (CR)) which are widely used in RTHT. The methods have been assessed in terms of stability and accuracy for various realistic damping ratios of the physical substructure. The stability is assessed in terms of the spectral radii of the amplification matrix while the accuracy in terms of numerical damping and period distortion. In order to evaluate the performance of the methods, five carefully chosen examples have been studied - undamped SDOF, damped SDOF, instantaneous softening, instantaneous hardening and hysteretic system. The performance of the methods is measured in terms of a non-dimensional error index for displacement and velocity. Based on the error indices, it is observed that OSM and RBM are robust and performs fairly well in all the cases. CDM performed well for undamped SDOF system. CR method can be used for the system showing softening behaviour. The error indices indicate that accuracy of OSM is more than other method in case of hysteretic system. The accuracy of the results obtained through time integration methods for different damping ratios of the physical substructure is addressed in the present study. In the presence of a number of integration methods, it is preferable to have criteria for the selection of the time integration scheme. As such criteria are not available presently, this paper attempts to fill this gap by numerically assessing the four commonly used step-by-step methods.