Real-time hybrid simulation replicates structural responses under earthquakes through integrating physical testing of experimental substructures and numerical modeling of analytical substructures. Experimental studies however indicated that actuator delay induced tracking errors are often inevitable even when a sophisticated actuator delay compensation technique is applied. Reliability assessment of real-time hybrid simulation results is therefore necessary to correctly interpret for structure performance evaluation. This however could be difficult since exact structural response is often not available for an immediate comparison. This paper proposes a reliability assessment approach for real-time hybrid simulation results. Statistical distribution of actuator delay values corresponding to certain accuracy level established for linear elastic single-degree-of-freedom structures is modified to account for structural nonlinearity. An existing tracking indicator is then utilized to incorporate the probabilistic distribution of this actuator delay to assess the reliability of real-time hybrid simulation results. Real-time hybrid simulations of a steel moment resisting frame with an elastomeric damper are used to demonstrate the application of proposed approach.
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