Performance validation and application of a mixed force-displacement loading strategy for bi-directional hybrid simulation

Hybrid simulation (HS) is a versatile tool for structural performance evaluation under dynamic loads. Although real structural responses are often multiple-directional owing to an eccentric mass/stiffness of the structure and/or excitations not along structural major axes, few HS in this field takes into account structural responses in multiple directions. Multi-directional loading is more challenging than uni-directional loading as there is a nonlinear transformation between actuator and specimen coordinate systems, increasing the difficulty of suppressing loading error. Moreover, redundant actuators may exist in multi-directional hybrid simulations of large-scale structures, which requires the loading strategy to contain ineffective loading of multiple actuators. To address these issues, lately a new strategy was conceived for accurate reproduction of desired displacements in bi-directional hybrid simulations (BHS), which is characterized in two features, i.e., iterative displacement command updating based on the Jacobian matrix considering nonlinear geometric relationships, and force-based control for compensating ineffective forces of redundant actuators. This paper performs performance validation and application of this new mixed loading strategy. In particular, virtual BHS considering linear and nonlinear specimen models, and the diversity of actuator properties were carried out. A validation test was implemented with a steel frame specimen. A real application of this strategy to BHS on a full-scale 2-story frame specimen was performed. Studies showed that this strategy exhibited excellent tracking performance for the measured displacements of the control point and remarkable compensation for ineffective forces of the redundant actuator. This strategy was demonstrated to be capable of accurately and effectively reproducing the desired displacements in large-scale BHS.