Abstract
The objective of this paper is threefold: (i) To remove any misconceptions concerning the differences between hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HiLS), the hybrid scheme for substructured system testing and the dynamically substructured system (DSS) scheme for substructured system testing, (ii) To compare the hybrid and DSS substructure testing schemes in terms of their control system syntheses and corresponding relative stabilities, (iii) To provide a supporting comparative simulation study with application of the hybrid and DSS schemes to a relatively simple 'split-mass' substructured system. The key conclusion to emerge from the work is that DSS provides significant advantage in terms of relative stability over the hybrid scheme, especially when a pure delay term (representing computational delay) is included in the dynamic descriptions.