Dynamic assessment of structures and infrastructures beyond traditional civil engineering applications: insights from shaking-table testing and advanced numerical simulations

This study presents a comprehensive overview of the dynamic performance of critical infrastructure systems using shaking-table-based experimental and hybrid methodologies and highlights their essential role in reproducing realistic earthquake loading conditions and advancing dynamic assessment beyond conventional civil engineering applications. It integrates experimental, numerical, and hybrid simulation findings across diverse infrastructure domains, including distributed power networks, modular and smart buildings, landslide-prone slopes, railway systems, and wind turbines, identifying both system-specific vulnerabilities and effective mitigation strategies. Results demonstrate that infrastructure resilience is strongly governed by soil-structure interaction, connection detailing, energy dissipation mechanisms, isolation systems, and multi-hazard coupling effects. Advanced shaking-table technologies, including conventional single-direction systems as well as multidirectional configurations such as dual-table and six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) systems, enable increasingly realistic simulation of complex ground motion characteristics, including spatial variability and asynchronous excitations. By consolidating cross-sector experimental and numerical evidence, the study emphasizes the importance of performance-based seismic design frameworks integrating advanced control strategies, real-time hybrid simulation, and predictive assessment methodologies. The results contribute to improved seismic risk assessment and performance-based infrastructure design, facilitating the development of systems suited to complex seismic environments.