SUMMARY The effectiveness of equivalent force control (EFC) method has been experimentally validated through hybrid tests with simple specimens. In this paper, the EFC method is applied for the MDOF pseudo‐dynamic substructure tests in which a three‐storey frame‐supported reinforced concrete masonry shear wall with full scale is chosen as physical substructure. The effects of equivalent force controller parameters on the response performance are studied. Analytical expressions for the controller parameter ranges are derived to avoid response overshooting or oscillation and are verified by numerical simulation. The controller parameters are determined based on analytical and numerical studies and used in the actual full‐scale pseudo‐dynamic test. The test results show good tracking performance of EFC, which indicates a successful test. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Abstract:The hybrid simulation (HS) testing method combines physical test and numerical simulation, and provides a viable alternative to evaluate the structural seismic performance. Most studies focused on the accuracy, stability and reliability of the HS method in the small-scale tests. It is a challenge to evaluate the seismic performance of a twelve-story pre-cast reinforced concrete shear-wall structure using this HS method which takes the full-scale bottom three-story structural model as the physical substructure and the elastic non-linear model as the numerical substructure. This paper employs an equivalent force control (EFC) method with implicit integration algorithm to deal with the numerical integration of the equation of motion (EOM) and the control of the loading device. Because of the arrangement of the test model, an elastic non-linear numerical model is used to simulate the numerical substructure. And non-subdivision strategy for the displacement inflection point of numerical substructure is used to easily realize the simulation of the numerical substructure and thus reduce the measured error. The parameters of the EFC method are calculated basing on analytical and numerical studies and used to the actual full-scale HS test. Finally, the accuracy and feasibility of the EFC-based HS method is verified experimentally through the substructure HS tests of the pre-cast reinforced concrete shear-wall structure model. And the testing results of the descending stage can be conveniently obtained from the EFC-based HS method.

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Based on the feasibility and reliability of a forward analytical model updating method with uniform design having been proven, this paper studies the effectiveness of the method in the condition that structural measured information is uncertain and incomplete. By taking the experimental data of a steel truss as an example, this paper studies the method of experimental data processing, the determination of structural model with unknown parameters, the interval estimation of identification results and stepwise uniform design considered the correlation among identification parameters. The results show that the errors between the numerical results computed by the updated model and the experimental data are acceptable, which means the method in this paper is feasible and reliable. In the end, based on our experiences and lessons, we summarize a model updating method for complex structures using stepwise uniform design schemes considered the primary and secondary factors, and expound its computational steps.