Keywords: hybrid testing, distributed computing, earthquake engineering.

Full scale testing is a realistic way to evaluate the behaviour of structures under earthquake loading, as well as to verify the effectiveness of the design or retrofit methods for new or existing earthquake-resistant structures, respectively. Notwithstanding the increasing capabilities of the structural engineering laboratories, factors related to space limitation, equipment capacity, scaling issues, and the high operational and maintenance cost of the facilities themselves, often set limits to the problems that cannot be studied through physical experimentation. On the other hand, the advanced analytical and numerical models that are currently available, have their own limitations in capturing the actual complexity of structural behaviour. This is even more pronounced in the case of strong material or geometrical non-linearities, non-conventional loading or boundary conditions, or significant soil-structure interaction phenomena. As a result, the analysis capabilities are inevitably limited to solving a specific set of relatively narrow problems, focusing either on the system or a single component level. Along these lines, the scope of this paper is to review the recent advances in real time and geographically distributed hybrid experimentation in the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. Limitations are critically discussed and emerging research needs are presented, along with some new ideas on potential extrapolation of hybrid simulation to other scientific disciplines.

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