Implementing real time adaptive control methods for substructuring of large structures

Recently, the concept of real-time dynamic substructuring has been developed for testing large structures. This involves the use of a numerical and an experimental substructure, which interact together to emulate the whole structure. Normally, the interaction between the two substructures is governed using a linear controller. This method has been extended using an adaptive controller based on the minimal control synthesis (MCS) algorithm. Tests on small-scale models have been performed to prove the concept. This paper describes the implementation of real-time dynamic substructuring on the shaking table at the University of Bristol using a spring-mass-damper model as the system to be substructured. How the numerical model and the experimental substructure are combined with the adaptive controller is discussed. The results obtained from the validation tests are presented.