Laboratory dynamic structural testing. Methods and applications

Abstract

Regardless of the advances in simulation power of computers and material constitutive models, there is an agreement with the need of structural experimental testing. In particular, great effort has been made to understand the performance of structures under exceptional loads such as earthquakes or impacts. Several methods have been used in structural testing: quasi-static testing, shake tables and hybrid simulation. In the latter, only some parts of the structure are experimentally tested, whereas the others are numerically simulated. Test progresses as the results of the physical test are fed into the model and its outputs are imposed on the physical substructure. In this work, a review of these methods is presented comparing their strengths, weaknesses and áreas of application. Emphasis is put on hybrid simulation and application possibilities to areas different than Seismic Engineering are suggested; for instance: testing of vibration damping devices under crowd induced forces or problems such as fluid or vehicle-structure interaction.