Virtual laboratory for experimental structural dynamics

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, nonlinearlties, 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.