Virtual laboratory for experimental structural dynamics

Abstract

Abstract This article presents a Java‐powered virtual laboratory (VL) which has been developed to provide a means for on‐line interactive structural dynamics experiments for undergraduate and graduate education. This VL intends to provide a conceptual and practical understanding of a wide range of topics related to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data from dynamic testing, including sensor type and placement, aliasing, windowing, nonlinearities, etc. A multi‐story shear building is employed as a test bed and the responses of the structure are obtained through the linear/nonlinear dynamic analysis. The VL is available on‐line at http://sstl.cee.uiuc.edu/java/esd/virtuallab.html . This article presents the unique features and usage of this VL. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 17: 80–88, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae20162