Experimental Error Propagation in Pseudodynamic Testing

摘要

The pseudodynamic method is a relatively new experimental technique which can simulate quasi-statically the seismic response of large scale structural models using a computer-controlled actuator system and a numerical integration algorithm. Because of the large number of integration steps involved in a single test, the cumulative errors can be significant even though the actual experimental feedback errors within each step are relatively small. This study looks into the possible sources and the characteristics of experimental feedback errors in pseudodynamic testing, and presents a general analytical technique to study the error-propagation behavior of step-by-step integration algorithms.