Late Quaternary Slip-rates and Slip Partitioning on the Southeastern Xianshuihe Fault System, Eastern Tibetan Plateau

Quantitative analysis of the kinematics of the active faults distributed around the QinghaiTibetan Plateau is critical to understand current tectonic processes of the plateau. Chronological analysis, based on the comparison among regional climate and geomorphology, digital photogrammetry, offset landforms, and the tectonics were adopted in this study on the Xianshuihe fault in the eastern Tibetan plateau. Two or more offset-age data were obtained for each segment of the Xianshuihe and theYunongxi faults. The offset landforms, including river terrace, alluvial fan and glacial moraine, provide constraints for the late Quaternary slip rate of the Xianshuihe fault. The left-lateral strike slip rate of the Xianshuihe fault decreases from 17 mm/a on the northwest segment to 9.3 mm/a on the southeast segment. Regarding the Xianshuihe fault zone and its adjacent blocks as a regional tectonic system, vector analysis was used to quantitatively analyze the longitudinal kinematical transformation and transversal slip partitioning on the fault zone in terms of the kinematical parameters of the main faults within the zone. The results show that there is a distributed vertical uplift at a rate of 6.1 mm/yr caused by shortening across the Gongga Mountains region. Based on these results, we established a model of the slip partitioning for the southeastern segment of the Xianshuihe fault zone.

Model-based framework for multi-axial real-time hybrid simulation testing

Real-time hybrid simulation is an efficient and cost-effective dynamic testing technique for performance evaluation of structural systems subjected to earthquake loading with rate-dependent behavior. A loading assembly with multiple actuators is required to impose realistic boundary conditions on physical specimens. However, such a testing system is expected to exhibit significant dynamic coupling of the actuators and suffer from time lags that are associated with the dynamics of the servo-hydraulic system, as well as control-structure interaction （CSI）. One approach to reducing experimental errors considers a multi-input, multi-output （MIMO） controller design, yielding accurate reference tracking and noise rejection. In this paper, a framework for multi-axial real-time hybrid simulation （maRTHS） testing is presented. The methodology employs a real-time feedback-feedforward controller for multiple actuators commanded in Cartesian coordinates. Kinematic transformations between actuator space and Cartesian space are derived for all six-degrees-of- freedom of the moving platform. Then, a frequency domain identification technique is used to develop an accurate MIMO transfer function of the system. Further, a Cartesian-domain model-based feedforward-feedback controller is implemented for time lag compensation and to increase the robustness of the reference tracking for given model uncertainty. The framework is implemented using the 1/5th-scale Load and Boundary Condition Box （LBCB） located at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. To demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology, a single-story frame subjected to earthquake loading is tested. One of the columns in the fraane is represented physically in the laboratory as a cantilevered steel column. For real- time execution, the numerical substructure, kinematic transformations, and controllers are implemented on a digital signal processor. Results show excellent performance of the maRTHS framework when six-degrees-of-freedom are controUed at the interface between substructures.