Flexible substructure online hybrid test system using conventional testing devices

This paper presents a substructure online hybrid test system that is extensible for geographically distributed tests. This system consists of a set of devices conventionally used for cyclic tests to load the tested substructures onto the target displacement or the target force. Due to their robustness and portability, individual sets of conventional loading devices can be transported and reconfigured to realize physical loading in geographically remote laboratories. Another appealing feature is the flexible displacement-force mixed control that is particularly suitable for specimens having large disparities in stiffness during various performance stages. To conduct a substructure online hybrid test, an extensible framework is developed, which is equipped with a generalized interface to encapsulate each substructure. Multiple tested substructures and analyzed substructures using various structural program codes can be accommodated within the single framework, simply interfaced with the boundary displacements and forces. A coordinator program is developed to keep the boundaries among all substructures compatible and equilibrated. An Interuet-based data exchange scheme is also devised to transfer data among computers equipped with different software environments. A series of online hybrid tests are introduced, and the portability, flexibility, and extensibility of the online hybrid test system are demonstrated.

A Joint Model of Device Load and User Intention in Load Monitoring

In this paper, a concept for the joint modeling of the device load and user intention is presented. It consists of two coupled models, a device load model to characterize the power consumption of an electric device of interest, and a user intention model for describing the user intentions which cause the energy consumption. The advantage of this joint model is the ability to predict the device load from the user intention and to reconstruct the user intention from the measured device load. This opens a new way for load monitoring, simulation and prediction from the perspective of users instead of devices.

A model test system with a dynamic load device for geotechnical engineering in cold regions

A model test system with a dynamic load device for geotechnical engineering in cold regions is presented. This system consists of a model test tank, a refrigeration device and temperature controller, a dynamic load device, together with sensors and data loggers for detecting stress, deformation, and temperature changes. The system can accommodate soil blocks up to 3 m in length, 2.5 m in width, and 1 m in height. The lowest temperature provided by the refrigeration device is -20 ℃. The maximum load provided by the dynamic load device is 100 kN and the vibration fi＇equency of the dynamic load can range from 0.1 to 10 Hz. A number of waveforms, such as sine waves, rectangular waves, triangle waves, and other user-defined waves can be generated by the dynamic load device controller.