Hybrid Simulation of Structural Collapse

Abstract eng:
The ability to model structural collapse is essential for improving our understanding of the performance of structures during very rare earthquake events. However, experimental investigations of collapse are complex, expensive and potentially dangerous. This paper demonstrates a novel extension of the hybrid simulation testing method to model structural collapse. The principal advantage of this extension is that, contrary to shaking table testing, no large physical masses and equipment protection systems are needed for the experimental part of a hybrid simulation, making the collapse experiment less expensive and significantly safer. The Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees) structural modeling software and the Open Framework for Experimental Setup and Control (OpenFresco) hybrid simulation software are used to consistently model geometric nonlinearities in the analytical portion of the hybrid model, including the geometric transformation involving the degrees-of-freedom of the experimental subassemblies. A hybrid simulation of the seismic response of a one-story portal frame with two ductile columns is carried out until collapse to demonstrate the newly proposed implementation. The columns, modeled using physical specimens, were not axially loaded: instead, second-order analytical geometric transformations were used to affect the actions of the axial load. A direct comparison of the results of two hybrid simulations, with and without accounting for gravity load effects, shows that the hybrid model with P-Delta effects develops negative postpeak stiffness, incrementally increasing lateral displacements until collapse.

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