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Experimental evaluation of a model accuracy indicator for hybrid simulations involving model updating

Laboratory experiments play a critical role in earthquake engineering research. Hybrid simulation provides a viable technique to assess structural performance through component tests. One challenge exists for current practice of hybrid simulation when a complex structure has more critical components than that could be accommodated in laboratories. Hybrid simulation with model updating has been developed to updating the model parameters for analytical substructures based on the observed behavior of similar parts within experimental substructures. Hybrid simulation with model updating thus has great potential to be extended to real-time hybrid simulation to account for rate-dependent behavior within structures beyond existing laboratory capacity in terms of space and equipment. It however also raises concern on how to quantify the cumulative effect of modeling errors in analytical substructures throughout the experiments. This paper evaluates a previously developed tool using experimental results. The proposed tool is demonstrated to be highly effective for assessing the effect of modeling error and thereby enables future reliability assessment of hybrid simulation results when actual structural response is not available for immediate comparison.

Author(s):

Cheng Chen    
San Francisco State University
United States

Nelly Averamova    
San Francisco State University
United States