SUMMARY A numerical‐substructure‐based framework for the synthesis of substructured dynamics, substructurability, and exact synchronisation controllers using state‐space methods is presented in this paper. Substructurability is used to analyse the dynamic properties of numerical substructures and transfer systems, on the basis of controllability, substructured eigenvalue, and condition number techniques. Exact synchronisation controllers are designed under the assumptions of unknown parameters of the tested components and are used to achieve a higher level of synchronisation over the transient state. Implementation studies present a synchronised‐component‐based approach for the controller design and also verify that (1) substructured eigenvalues provide a general indicator to predict stability and performance in advance and (2) slow substructured eigenvalues due to low damping or large mass within a numerical substructure tend to yield ineffective and inefficient tests. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Advanced finite element dynamic sub structuring tests using innovative signal-based control strategies are presented in this paper. Substructuring tests decompose an entire structural system into parts. Nonlinear and critical components are physically tested at full size, whilst the remainder is simulated numerically in real-time. The success of the tests depends on two major requirements: (1) a robust controller to synchronize the numerical and physical responses;(2) fast, stable and accurate numerical simulation techniques.Hence, the proposed new sub structuring strategies use a signal-based approach to design robust controllers, and develop real-time finite element methods to guarantee simulation accuracy. Signal-based controllers are advantageous, because their designs do not require a priori knowledge of the numerical and physical components. Implementation studies of a beam-spring-damper dynamically substructured system verify the effectiveness of the proposed new testing techniques.