Discovering OpenSees - Introduction to OpenFrescoExpress

OpenFrescoExpress is a self-contained software package, including an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), which facilitates hybrid testing of systems having up to two degrees of freedom. OpenFrescoExpress addresses the needs of a wide range of users including:

• laboratory staff and research students learning about hybrid simulation and starting to use this experimental testing method.
• staff and students at laboratories that regularly use hybrid simulation but desire a tool for quick demonstration of the hybrid simulation testing method.

• researchers who are conducting simple tests and would like to take advantage of a graphical user interface that quickly and easily displays useful real-time test data. • graduate students and researchers who are not at a laboratory but wish to run the software as a pure simulation tool to learn more about hybrid simulation and how it works.

The seminar will provide an introduction to the hybrid simulation testing technique and illustrate how OpenFrescoExpress can be used to graphically setup a hybrid model and execute a hybrid simulation. The following topics will be covered: • Introduction to hybrid simulation • Downloading and installing OpenFrescoExpress • Example 1: building your first hybrid model • Simulated versus real controllers • Error monitors: assessing the goodness of a test • Example 2: two-story building • Resources for more complicated hybrid tests • Summary and conclusions