Date of Award

6-2011

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Civil and Construction Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Xiaoyun Shao

Second Advisor

Dr. Haluk Aktan

Third Advisor

Dr. Upul Aftanayake

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Campus Only

Abstract

A hybrid testing system was developed to evaluate the seismic performance of a structural system by physically testing part of the structure, called a physical substructure, while numerically simulating the rest of the structure using a computer model. Instead of building a full sized structural specimen, hybrid testing allows researchers to build a complex substructure to be tested experimentally while the relatively simple part of the structure is numerically simulated. A versatile hybrid testing system was developed at Western Michigan University which includes a seismic simulator (often called a shake table), a reaction/loading system and an advanced hybrid testing controller. Such testing system was used to simulate the seismic response of a three story structure whose top story was installed with motion mitigation devices (i.e. dampers). The physical substructure is the top story with damper, which was installed on the shake table, and the numerical substructure is the lower two stories simulated in the computer. The boundary motions between the physical and numerical substructure were numerically simulated and applied to the top story using the shake table. Test results as well as the development of the test system were presented and discussed in this thesis.

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