THEORY AND PRACTICE OF REAL-TIME DYNAMIC HYBRID TESTING

Real-time dynamic hybrid testing (RTDHT) is an emerging method for simulating the dynamic response of structures under earthquakes, where an emulated system is divided into experimental substructure to be physically tested and the numerical substructure to be numerically analyzed. The method simultaneously processes the advantages of the shaking table testing and the pseudo-dynamic testing and thus is considered as a promising procedure for testing the dynamic behavior of complicated structures. This paper first describes the basic concept of the RTDHT and reviews the state-of-the-art research on the RTDHT. The investigations of the RTDHT carried out by the research group at Tsinghua University are then briefly introduced. Finally, some problems challenging the development the RTDHT are suggested.