Tracking error-based servohydraulic actuator adaptive compensation for real-time hybrid simulation

Real-time hybrid simulation combines experimental testing and numerical simulation by dividing a structural system into experimental and analytical substructures. Servohydraulic actuators are typically used in a real-time hybrid simulation to apply command displacements to the experimental substructure(s). Servohydraulic actuators may develop a time delay due to inherent actuator dynamics that results in a desynchronization between the measured restoring force(s) and the integration algorithm in a real-time hybrid simulation. Inaccuracy or even instability will occur in a hybrid simulation if actuator delay is not compensated properly. This paper presents an adaptive compensation method for actuator delay. An adaptive control law is developed using an error tracking indicator to adapt a compensation parameter used in the proposed compensation method. Laboratory tests involving large-scale real-time hybrid simulations of a single degree of freedom moment resisting frame with an elastomeric damper are conducted to experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive compensation method. The actuator tracking capability is shown to be greatly improved and exceptional experimental results are still achieved when a good estimate of actuator delay is not available. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0000124 CE Database subject headings: Experimentation; Hybrid methods; Monitoring; Substructures; Adaptive systems. Author keywords: Experimentation; Hybrid methods; Tracking; Compensation; Adaptive systems.