Real -time substructure test with MTS control system

To carry out a real-time substructure test, it is necessary to analyse the real-time performance of software and hardware of the testing system. A real-time substructure testing system was set up with MTS FlexTest GT controller, and then was applied to the test of a single story frame structure incorporated with a viscous damper. The bare frame of the tested structure was the numerical substructure, and the damper was the physical substructure. The test results matched well with the calculated ones. The results show that the MTS-SCHENCK testing system satisfies the demands of real-time substructure testing, and the real-time substructure testing can well reflect the performance of the structure with velocity dependent components. A simplified actuator response model was then developed and the effect of time delay on the tested results with this model was analysed. The result shows that the test error increases with the increasing time delay.