Development of a Generic Controller Interface Program NICON for Multi-degrees of Freedom PSD Hybrid Simulation

Abstract

Substructure hybrid simulation has been widely applied to investigate structural behavior under earthquake event. In this simulation technique, critical components of a structure are physically modelled as experimental specimens, and the rest of the structure is numerically modeled in a computer. This study presents a generic network interface and control program for controllers (NICON) which can be used in most common actuator configurations for substructure hybrid simulation. An algorithm is implemented in the program which allows coordinate conversion between a numerical model's Cartesian coordinate system and actuators' strokes in one to three dimensions. This study verifies the algorithm by comparing actuator stroke commands generated from NICON with theoretical predictions for most common actuator configurations. It then validates the algorithm by comparing the displacement commands from NICON with measurements obtained from a Multi-axial shaking table (MAST). Finally, suggestions for future study are listed at the end.