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Hybrid Simulation Using Mixed Displacement and Equivalent-Force Control to

Capture Column Shortening in Frame Structures

Conference Paper · June 2022

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 Hybrid Simulation Using Mixed Displacement and Equivalent-Force Control to
Capture Column Shortening in Frame Structures

C. Sepulveda1, G. Mosqueda2, C. Uang3, C. C. Chou4, K. J. Wang5

ABSTRACT
A hybrid simulation methodology is developed to analyze the system-level seismic response of a steel moment frame structure with an
experimental subassembly exhibiting column shortening. Considering the high axial stiffness of frames, the axial load is typically
applied by force-controlled loading without consideration of displacement compatibility. To account for shortening, a new approach is
proposed to control stiff axial degrees of freedom using an equivalent-force control method within the displacement-based framework
for hybrid simulation. The column axial load on the experimental subassembly is imposed using force-controlled actuators based on the
estimated axial force in the numerical model. The shortening in the experimental column is then measured and an equivalent force is
returned and applied at the top of the column node to impose a compatible shortening in the numerical model. The lateral degrees of
freedom are applied using a substructuring strategy that considers the control points in the experimental setup. Numerical studies are
carried out to demonstrate that force equilibrium and displacement compatibility at the top end of the buckling column can be achieved
reliably using this approach.

Introduction
Deep slender wide-flange steel members are widely used for columns of steel moment frames to achieve compliance
with lateral drift requirements. However, component level tests have shown that these columns are susceptible to local
buckling under combined lateral drifts and high axial loads leading to shortening [1][2][3]. The objective of this
research is to simulate the system level behavior of structural framing systems with deep slender columns considering
the effects of column shortening and potential effects of structural system stability. Hybrid simulations combining a
full numerical model of a building with an experimental beam and column frame subassembly are proposed to analyze
the seismic response of these structures. The shortening behavior of wide-flange sections, for which currently no
reliable models have been developed, is captured in the experimental frame subassemblies [4]. A series of hybrid

1
Graduate Student Researcher, Dept. of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
(email: csepulve@eng.ucsd.edu)
2
Professor, Dept. of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (email:
gmosqueda@eng.ucsd.edu)
3
Professor, Dept. of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (email: cmu@ucsd.edu)
4
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617.
Director, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), Taipei City 106219 (email:
cechou@ntu.edu.tw)
5
Principal Engineer, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), Taipei City 106219 (email:
kjwang@narlabs.org.tw)

Sepulveda C, Mosqueda G, Uang C, Chou CC, Wang KJ. Hybrid simulation using mixed displacement and equivalent-force
control to capture column shortening in frame structures. Proceedings of the 12th National Conference in Earthquake
Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Salt Lake City, UT. 2022.
simulations with full-scale experimental subassemblies have been planned to examine the column shortening behavior
and its interaction with the structural framing system. The effect of column shorting on the frame behavior has not
been previously studied experimentally, and the application of hybrid simulations requires new substructuring
approaches to capture this behavior. In particular, column axial loads are typically applied in force control and
compatibility of vertical displacements between the numerical and experimental model are considered negligible due
to the high axial stiffness of the frame. Numerical simulations are carried out to evaluate substructuring strategies that
capture the seismic response of the frame considering the combined lateral seismic loads and induced shortening in
the experimental column.

Numerical Model
The prototype structure is a 6-story, 4-bay steel special moment resisting frame. The numerical 2-D model is
implemented in OpenSees [5] using displacement-based element with fiber sections for columns to capture axial-
moment coupling, with the Menegotto and Pinto (1973) material model as extended by Filippou et al. [6]. The panel
zones are modeled following Gupta and Krawinkler [7]. For beams with reduced beam sections, the Ibarra-Medina-
Krawinkler model [8] is used for plastic hinges with linear beam-column elements for the rest of the beam considering
composite slab effect. To account for geometrical nonlinearities, the P-Delta geometrical transformation is applied for
vertical elements and linear geometrical transformation for beams. A leaning column is included to account for the
second-order effect due the gravity loads.

Experimental Substructure
Experiments are being conducted as part of a collaborative research program between Univ. of Michigan, UC San
Diego, and NCREE. A full-scale experimental setup was developed for cyclic testing of beam and column
subassemblies with the focus on first-story column behavior including column buckling and shortening. The
experimental cruciform subassembly and the actuator configuration is shown in the top right of Fig. 1. The column of
one and a half story height has a pin-connected actuator at the top to control the lateral displacement. The top of the
column is loaded by a hydraulic jack under force control to impose axial loads. The subassembly includes beams on
each side of the column extending half the bay length with pin-connected vertical actuators at the end of each beam to
control the vertical displacements and induce shear and bending in the beams.

Substructuring Method
The hybrid simulation substructuring strategy was developed based on the existing experimental setup with no changes
considered due to cost constraints. Extensive numerical studies were carried out to evaluate effective approaches to
conduct hybrid simulations considering the control points within the available actuators. Considering that the three
interior columns of the prototype four-bay frame show similar behavior, the experimental specimen is selected to
represent three column substructures in the first story. Importantly, the experimental setup includes only one horizontal
actuator with two lateral displacements of interest including the top of the specimen at mid-height of the second story
and the floor level below. An objective of this study was to determine if the current setup could provide adequate
control of the specimen to function as a substructure in a hybrid simulation.
To evaluate substructuring techniques, virtual hybrid simulation were conducted using the middleware OpenFresco
[9] to couple two OpenSees models acting as the numerical model and the virtual-experimental subassembly [10].
Considering only one horizontal actuator, the control point for displacement and the location to return the horizontal
shear force was evaluated. The use of a substructuring overlapping method [11] was considered, with the numerical
model receiving the shear force and moment for the top of the first story column and the upper part of the specimen
considered as the overlapped zone. The following options were considered for the horizontal actuator lateral
displacement command and compared to the full numerical model: Option H1 uses the horizontal displacement at the
middle of the second-story column in the numerical substructure; Option H2 uses the average of the horizontal
displacement of floor levels 1 and 2 [11]; and Option H3 sets as the control target that the displacement at the floor
level is equal to the horizontal displacement of the first story of the numerical substructure. Figure 1 compares the first
story drift ratio during an earthquake simulation from these three control strategies versus a numerical simulation of
the full prototype structure without any substructuring. The three strategies give similar results, with H3 resulting in a
smaller normalized root mean square error (NRMS) and selected for this test.
Figure 1. Virtual hybrid simulation using different substructuring strategies.

Equivalent Force-Control Strategy for Axial Behavior

The numerical framework for hybrid simulation is displacement-based, as is typical in structural analysis software for
nonlinear time history analysis. Consequently, the experimental substructure receives a displacement command for the
actuators, applies the displacement, and returns the measured force. However, testing of a stiff system such as the axial
degree of freedom for a column can lead to large force errors under displacement-controlled actuators. Strategies to
apply force controlled axial loads have been developed in which the displacement prediction is converted to an
equivalent force with the ability to capture varying axial load on columns. Several previous tests have applied a mixed
displacement control (for lateral DOF) and force control (for stiff axial DOF) [12]. In these past applications, there has
been no feedback from the axial DOF to the numerical model since the vertical displacement has been considered
negligible. As a result, equilibrium is enforced, and compatibility has been neglected. For the structure examined here,
significant axial shortening is expected in the experimental substructure requiring a new approach to capture this effect
in the numerical model.

Figure 2. Scheme of the proposed equivalent-force control strategy.

To satisfy compatibility of vertical displacement between the experimental and numerical substructure, the
following approach is applied. First, the axial load of the column elements is computed based on the vertical
displacement of both ends of the column. A linear beam-column element is used in the center portion of the column
to better estimate its axial stiffness while avoiding the columns ends that can be subjected to nonlinear behavior. The
axial force is then used to command the hydraulic jack applying the axial load on the experimental column. In the
numerical model, the three first-story columns are replaced by linear elastic truss elements to support the gravity loads
only with the shear and moment resistance provided by the experimental specimen. These truss elements are also used
to receive an additional equivalent force with a magnitude required to induce the measured shortening from the
experiment in the numerical model. Coupling of the vertical motion with the remainder of the frame is considered in
determining the effective stiffness to apply the correct pull-down force, achieving displacement compatibility between
both subassemblies. Figure 2 illustrated the vertical degree of freedom interaction between the numerical model and
the experimental substructure. The equivalent force fed back to the numerical substructure is computed within the
middleware by using the measured vertical displacement on top of the first-story column, dsh. The vertical displacement
from the initial gravity loads, dg, is extracted from dsh because this value is already considered into the numerical
substructure. Assuming that the three linear columns in the middle have the same amount of shortening, a condensed
linear stiffness coefficient Ksh is estimated assuming a vertical displacement of the three columns in the middle (Eq.
1).

Feqi+1 =(dshi -dg)Ksh= dfbki Ksh (1)

Due to the high elastic stiffness of the columns in the axial direction, the condensed stiffness Ksh of the system is
mainly controlled by these elements. However, for large vertical displacements, nonlinear behavior is expected
especially in beams. Then, Feq calculated through a constant Ksh would not accurately apply the desired displacement.
Kim and Stojadinovic [13] solved a similar problem by estimating a tangent stiffness online for every step. However,
this tangent stiffness did not show a reliable estimation along the analysis. To overcome this issue, an additional error-
proportional term is added, similar to that used by Nakata et al [14] for a displacement command. Then, the equivalent
force is computed as follows:

Feqi+1 =dfbki Ksh + (unumi-dshi)KshG= dfbki Ksh + ei KshG (2)

where unumi is the actual displacement in the numerical substructure at step i, and at the location where the Feq is applied.
The parameter G is a proportional gain calibrated for this model. If the displacement in the numerical substructure unum
has the same desired displacement dsh, then this error term is zero. On the other hand, if the term dfbki Ksh is not able to
impose the desired vertical displacement in the numerical substructure, the error term ei KshG will compensate this
difference similar to a proportional feedback control loop.

Conclusions
In this paper, a substructuring strategy was proposed to utilize an existing experimental setup for hybrid simulation.
Numerical studies were performed to define the best approach to control the horizontal actuator for a cruciform
subassembly and select the restoring forces returned to the numerical model. An overlapping substructure technique
was selected with the single horizontal actuator enforcing displacement compatibility at the first-story level between
both numerical and experimental subassemblies. In addition, a mixed displacement and equivalent-force control
method is proposed to achieve force equilibrium in the axial direction and enforcing displacement compatibility with
the numerical substructure that is initially stiff then expected to have significant shortening. This proposed strategy
can be implemented within an existing hybrid simulation framework. This approach was recently applied in an
experimental test at NCREE for a similar experimental substructure. The base of the column suffered local buckling
as expected, producing column axial shortening. The control strategy proposed here enforced displacement
compatibility in the numerical substructure, being able to capture differential settlement at system level and its impact
on the overall behavior. More details about these experimental results are reported by Wang et al. [14] with additional
testing being planned.

Acknowledgments
This project was funded by NIST under Award 70NANB171TZ91 to University of Michigan and UC San Diego.
Hybrid testing at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) is supported by the Ministry of
Science and Technology (MOST 110-2625-M-002-015), Taiwan.
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