Uncertainties in ground motions and structural response to those ground motions along with economic constraints impose the acceptance of a small probability of collapse. Assessment of this small probability of collapse requires the ability to confidently predict the response of structures through collapse. Experimental tests at the structural level are needed to validate collapse predictions and evaluate phenomena that are not represented adequately in component tests, but these tests are very expensive and potentially dangerous. To solve this problem, this project uses hybrid testing for collapse simulation.
The goals of this project are to:
conduct a comprehensive validation of hybrid simulation techniques to collapse; significantly expand substructuring techniques used in distributed hybrid simulation to capture the effects of time-varying boundary conditions; improve the capabilities and reliability of hybrid simulation by developing and incorporating adaptive analytical models; understand and identify the most important structural and ground motion parameters that cause ratcheting behavior leading to collapse
