• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.441-459
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• 2012

Identification of vibration parameters from the analysis of the dynamic response of a structure plays a key role in current health monitoring systems. This study evaluates the capabilities of the recently developed Synchrosqueezed Wavelet Transform (SWT) to extract instant frequencies and damping values from the simulated noise-contaminated response of a structure. Two approaches to estimate the modal damping ratio from the results of the SWT are presented. The results obtained are compared to other signal processing methods based on Continuous Wavelet (CWT) and Hilbert-Huang (HHT) transforms. It was found that the time-frequency representation obtained via SWT is sharped than the obtained using just the CWT and it allows a more robust extraction of the individual modal responses than using the HHT. However, the identification of damping ratios is more stable when the CWT coefficients are employed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.745-762
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• 2011

Damage detection methodologies based on the direct examination of the nonlinear-nonstationary characteristics of the structure dynamic response may play an important role in online structural health monitoring applications. Different signal processing based damage detection methodologies have been proposed based on the uncovering of spikes in the high frequency component of the structural response obtained via Discrete Wavelet transforms, Hilbert-Huang transforms or high pass filtering. The performance of these approaches in systems subjected to different types of excitation is evaluated in this paper. It is found that in the case of random excitations, like earthquake accelerations, the effectiveness of such methodologies is limited. An alternative damage detection approach using the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) is also evaluated to overcome this limitation. Using the CWT has the advantage that the central frequencies at which it operates can be defined by the user while the frequency bands of the detail functions obtained via DWT are predetermined by the sampling period of the signal.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2009

In the working population, muscle fatigue and musculoskeletal discomfort are common, which, in the case of insufficient recovery may lead to musculoskeletal pain. Workers suffering from musculoskeletal pains need to be rehabilitated for recovery. Isokinetic testing has been used in physical strengthening, rehabilitation and post-operative orthopedic surgery. Frequency analysis of electromyography (EMG) signals using the mean frequency (MNF) has been widely used to characterize muscle fatigue. During isokinetic contractions, EMG signals present strong nonstationarities. Hilbert-Haung transform (HHT) and autoregressive (AR) model have been known more suitable than Fourier or wavelet transform for nonstationary signals. Moreover, several analyses have been performed within each active phase during isokinetic contractions. Thus, the aims of this study were i) to determine which one was better suitable for the analysis of MNF between HHT and AR model during repetitive maximum isokinetic extensions and ii) to investigate whether the analysis could be repeated for sequential fixed epoch lengths. Seven healthy volunteers (five males and two females) performed isokinetic knee extensions at $60^{\circ}/s$ and $240^{\circ}/s$ until 50% of the maximum peak torque was reached. Surface EMG signals were recorded from the rectus femoris of the right thigh. An algorithm detecting the onset and offset of EMG signals was applied to extract each active phase of the muscle. Following the results, slopes from the least-square error linear regression of MNF values showed that muscle fatigue of all subjects occurred. The AR model is better suited than HHT for estimating MNF from nonstationary EMG signals during isokinetic knee extensions. Moreover, the linear regression can be extracted from MNF values calculated by sequential fixed epoch lengths (p> 0.0I).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.982-982
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• 2005

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.605-607
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• 2015

The development of time-frequency analysis techniques allow astronomers to successfully deal with the non-stationary time series that originate from unstable physical mechanisms. We applied a recently developed time-frequency analysis method, the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), to two non-stationary phenomena: the superorbital modulation in the high-mass X-ray binary SMC X-1 and the quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) of the AGN RE J1034+396. From the analysis of SMC X-1, we obtained a Hilbert spectrum that shows more detailed information in both the time and frequency domains. Then, a phase-resolved analysis of both the spectra and the orbital profiles was presented. From the spectral analysis, we noticed that the iron line production is dominated by different regions of this binary system in different superorbital phases. Furthermore, a pre-eclipse dip lying at orbital phase ~0:6-0:85 was discovered during the superorbital transition state. We further applied the HHT to analyze the QPO of RE J1034+396. From the Hilbert spectrum and the O-C analysis results, we suggest that it is better to divide the evolution of the QPO into three epochs according to their different periodicities. The correlations between the QPO periods and corresponding fluxes were also different in these three epochs. The change in periodicity and the relationships could be interpreted as the change in oscillation mode based on the diskoseismology model.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.169-189
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• 2015

To investigate the effects of "sudden change" of wind fluctuations on vehicle running performance, which is caused by the artificial discrete simulation of wind field, a three-dimensional vehicle model is set up with multi-body dynamics theory and the vehicle dynamic responses in crosswind conditions are obtained in time domain. Based on Hilbert Huang Transform, the effects of simulation separations on time-frequency characteristics of wind field are discussed. In addition, the probability density distribution of "sudden change" of wind fluctuations is displayed, addressing the effects of simulation separation, mean wind speed and vehicle speed on the "sudden change" of wind fluctuations. The "sudden change" of vehicle dynamic responses, which is due to the discontinuity of wind fluctuations on moving vehicle, is also analyzed. With Principal Component Analysis, the comprehensive evaluation of vehicle running performance in crosswind conditions at different simulation separations of wind field is investigated. The results demonstrate that the artificial discrete simulation of wind field often causes "sudden change" in the wind fluctuations and the corresponding vehicle dynamic responses are noticeably affected. It provides a theoretical foundation for the choice of a suitable simulation separation of wind field in engineering application.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.67-79
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• 2015

Acoustic emission analysis is an effective technique for monitoring the evolution of damage in a structure. An experimental analysis on a set of reinforced concrete beams under flexural loading was carried out. A mixed AE analysis method which used both parameter-based and signal-based techniques was presented to characterize and identify different failure mechanisms of damage, where the signal-based analysis was performed by using the Hilbert-Huang transform. The maximum instantaneous energy of typical damage events and the corresponding frequency characteristics were established, which provided a quantitative assessment of reinforced concrete beam using AE technique. In the bending tests, a "pitch-catch" system was mounted on a steel bar to assess bonding state of the steel bar in concrete. To better understand the AE behavior of bond-slip damage between steel bar and concrete, a special bond-slip test called pullout test was also performed. The results provided the basis of quantitative AE to identify both failure mechanisms and level of damages of civil engineering structures.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartC
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• v.15C no.3
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• pp.149-156
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• 2008

JPEG2000 is the upcoming image coding standard that provides better compression rate and image quality compared with JPEG. Lazy-mode steganography guarantees the safe communication under the two information loss stages in JPEG2000. However, it causes the severe changes of the code-block noise variance sequence after embedding and that is detectable under the steganalysis using the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) based sequential analysis. In this paper, a JPEG2000 lazy-mode steganography method is presented. The code blocks which produce the sudden variation of the noise variance after embedding are estimated by calculating low precision code-block variance (LPV) and low precision code-block noise variance (LPNV). By avoiding those code-blocks from embedding, our algorithm preserves the sequence and makes stego images secure under the HHT-based steganalytic detection. In addition, it prevents a severe degradation of image quality by using JPEG2000 quality layer information. On various 2048 images, experiments are performed to show the effective reduction of the noise variation after message embedding and the stable performance against HHT-based steganalysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.417-434
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• 2002

This paper explores the possibility of using a combination of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and the Hilbert transform (HT), termed the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) method, to identify the modal damping ratios of the structure with closely spaced modal frequencies. The principle of the HHT method and the procedure of using the HHT method for modal damping ratio identification are briefly introduced first. The dynamic response of a two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) system under an impact load is then computed for a wide range of dynamic properties from well-separated modal frequencies to very closely spaced modal frequencies. The natural frequencies and modal damping ratios identified by the HHT method are compared with the theoretical values and those identified using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method. The results show that the HHT method is superior to the FFT method in the identification of modal damping ratios of the structure with closely spaced modes of vibration. Finally, a 36-storey shear building with a 4-storey light appendage, having closely spaced modal frequencies and subjected to an ambient ground motion, is analyzed. The modal damping ratios identified by the HHT method in conjunction with the random decrement technique (RDT) are much better than those obtained by the FFT method. The HHT method performing in the frequency-time domain seems to be a promising tool for system identification of civil engineering structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2011

This study investigates the feasibility of detecting structural damage using the HHT method. A damage detection index, the ratio of bandwidth (RB) is proposed. This index is highly correlated or approximately equal to the change of equivalent damping ratio for an intact structure incurring damage from strong ground motions. Based on an analysis of shaking table test data from benchmark models subjected to adjusted Kobe and El Centro earthquakes, the damage detection index is evaluated using the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) methods, respectively. Results indicate that, when the response of the structure is in the elastic region, the RB value only slightly changes in both the HHT and the FFT spectra. Additionally, RB values estimated from the HHT spectra vs. the PGA values change incrementally when the structure response is nonlinear i.e., member yielding occurs, but not in the RB curve from the FFT spectra. Moreover, the RB value of the top floor changes more than those from the other floors. Furthermore, structural damage is detected only when using the acceleration response data from the top floor. Therefore, the ratio of bandwidth RB estimated from the smoothed HHT spectra is an effective and sensitive damage index for detecting structural damage. Results of this study also demonstrate that the HHT is a powerful method in analyzing the nonlinear responses of steel structures to strong ground motions.