Energy-consistent integration method and its application to hybrid testing

The time-integration algorithm is an indispensable element to determine response of the boundary of the numerical as well as physical parts in a hybrid test. Instability of the time-integration algorithm may directly lead to failure of the test, so stability of an integration algorithm is particularly important for hybrid testing. The explicit algorithms are very popular in hybrid testing, because iteration is not needed. Many unconditionally stable explicit-algorithms have been proposed for hybrid testing. However, the stability analysis approaches used in all these methods are valid only for linear systems. In this paper, a uniform formulation for energy-consistent time integrations, which are unconditionally stable, is proposed for nonlinear systems. The solvability and accuracy are analyzed for typical energy-consistent algorithms. Some numerical examples and the results of a hybrid test are provided to validate the effectiveness of energy-consistent algorithms.