Implications of control-structure interaction in scaled structural control system testing

Experimental testing is an important step in the verification of control strategies. In the case of civil engineering structural control systems, small scale testing is commonly used to demonstrate key concepts and methods. Large or full scale testing is expensive and only a handful of facilities exist in the world. Thus, some researchers have considered experimental techniques which focus on the control device itself, and emulate the behavior of the structure with a simulator. The concern is that these techniques do not account for the interaction between the control device and the structure. This issue is examined. In a numerical example, the behavior of the control device when tested independently is compared to that of the device when it is used to control a structure.