• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.487-502
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• 2007

In recent decades there has been a trend towards improved mechanical characteristics of materials used in footbridge construction. It has enabled engineers to design lighter, slender and more aesthetic structures. As a result of these construction trends, many footbridges have become more susceptible to vibrations when subjected to dynamic loads. In addition to this, some inherit modelling uncertainties related to a lack of information on the as-built structure, such as boundary conditions, material properties, and the effects of non-structural elements make difficult to evaluate modal properties of footbridges, analytically. For these purposes, modal testing of footbridges is used to rectify these problems after construction. This paper describes an arch type steel footbridge, its analytical modelling, modal testing and finite element model calibration. A modern steel footbridge which has arch type structural system and located on the Karadeniz coast road in Trabzon, Turkey is selected as an application. An analytical modal analysis is performed on the developed 3D finite element model of footbridge to provide the analytical frequencies and mode shapes. The field ambient vibration tests on the footbridge deck under natural excitation such as human walking and traffic loads are conducted. The output-only modal parameter identification is carried out by using the peak picking of the average normalized power spectral densities in the frequency domain and stochastic subspace identification in the time domain, and dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies mode shapes and damping ratios are determined. The finite element model of footbridge is calibrated to minimize the differences between analytically and experimentally estimated modal properties by changing some uncertain modelling parameters such as material properties. At the end of the study, maximum differences in the natural frequencies are reduced from 22% to only %5 and good agreement is found between analytical and experimental dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies, mode shapes by model calibration.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.267-274
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• 2017

In this study was investigated of possibility using the recorded micro tremor data on ground level as ambient vibration input excitation data for investigation and application Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) on the bench-scale earthquake simulator (The Quanser Shake Table) for model steel structures. As known OMA methods (such as EFDD, SSI and so on) are supposed to deal with the ambient responses. For this purpose, analytical and experimental modal analysis of a model steel structure for dynamic characteristics was evaluated. 3D Finite element model of the building was evaluated for the model steel structure based on the design drawing. Ambient excitation was provided by shake table from the recorded micro tremor ambient vibration data on ground level. Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition is used for the output only modal identification. From this study, best correlation is found between mode shapes. Natural frequencies and analytical frequencies in average (only) 2.8% are differences.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.321-327
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• 2019

This study investigated the possibility of using the recorded micro tremor data on ground level as ambient vibration input excitation data for investigation and application Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) on the bench-scale earthquake simulator (The Quanser Shake Table) for model chimney. As known OMA methods (such as EFDD, SSI and so on) are supposed to deal with the ambient responses. For this purpose, analytical and experimental modal analysis of a model chimney for dynamic characteristics was performed. 3D Finite element model of the chimney was evaluated based on the design drawing. Ambient excitation was provided by shake table from the recorded micro tremor ambient vibration data on ground level. Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition is used for the output only modal identification. From this study, best correlation is found between mode shapes. Natural frequencies and analytical frequencies in average (only) 1.996% are different.

• Journal of the korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.25-37
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• 1992

Interior noise in a car is known to have an important influence on product acceptability. This noise is closely correlated with structural-acoustic vibration. When considering noise problem, the structural-acoustic relation of a vehicle cabin model needs to be identified. However, it is very difficult to get the modal parameters of this kind of cabin structure composed of thin plates: because it not only can be excited by the acoustic vibration of cavity, but also tends to have decoupling effects of one plate from another. In order to obtain modal parameters more precisely, various excitation techniques, i.e. impact, pure random, burst random, and swept sine testing are applied for the first step. In the case of the cabin model, impact and swept sine testing show good results. Next, the determination of the excitation point by trial- and-error and the accurate measurements of FRF's are performed with these methods. The modal parameter extraction is carried out for the final step. This paper proposes a new approach to find the modal parameters more reliably in the case of high decoupling effects. That is, the convergence of MIF and MCF in each panel, which provide some criteria for the validity of the obtained modal parameters, is observed. And from those results, the pretty accurate modal parameters can be determined. A comparative assessment between the modal testing and the FEM is also performed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.455-475
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• 2016

Dynamic characteristics, named as natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes, affect the dynamic behavior of buildings and they vary depending on the construction stages. It is aimed to present the effects of construction stages on the dynamic characteristics of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings considering theoretical and experimental investigations. For this purpose, a three-storey RC building model with a 1/2 scale was constructed in the laboratory of Civil Engineering Department at Karadeniz Technical University. The modal testing measurements were performed by using Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) method for the bare frame, brick walled and coated cases of the building model. Randomly generated loads by impact hammer were used to vibrate the building model; the responses were measured by uni-axial seismic accelerometers as acceleration. The building's modal parameters at these construction stages were extracted from the processed signals using the Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD) technique. Also, the finite element models of each case were developed and modal analyses were performed. It was observed from the experimental and theoretical investigations that the natural frequencies of the building model varied depending on the construction stages considerably.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.389-403
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• 2004

This study presents the structural model modification based on the modal data such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. Preliminary structural model can be obtained using design drawings and field measurement, and therefore the deteriorated stiffness of a structure and the effect of the boundary conditions are difficult to be evaluated in preliminary analysis model, and the preliminary model can be modified using structural response data including static and/or dynamic characteristics. In this study, the structural model is modified based on the structural modal data using genetic algorithm. Modal testing were carried out for Imjin River Bridge and Hangjoo Bridge, the modal properties were estimated using modal identification techniques, and finally the structural models were updated using genetic algorithm. The modified structural model could give us more reliable structural analysis results and therefore those can be used for structural performance evaluation such as load carrying capacity and seismic capacity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.441-446
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• 2008

The source transfer receiver model ('Source $\times$ Transfer = Response' model) which is widely used by NVH development process of vehicle/transport/machinery to analyze effectively and manage efficiently the structural dynamic behavior is also applicable to construction structure. If the evaluation assessment of the vibration level does not meet the target level, there are two methods, one is source treatment or replacement and the other is the reduction treatment on the transfer structure. In case of source treatment, it is done by source supplier and so, the latter is more practical method to reduce the vibration level. In this study, in order to get the accurate Transfer FE model(floor structure FE model), Experimental modal analysis of part of floor structure and FEM modal analysis of full floor structure are performed, then updating of FE model is performed after correlation analysis between these two results and finally, the modal model and FRF are compared between FE and Experimental results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.4_5
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• pp.459-470
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• 2012

This paper summarizes a study for the modal analysis and model updating conducted using the monitoring data obtained from the Canton Tower of 610 m tall, which was established as an international benchmark problem by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Modal properties of the tower were successfully identified using frequency domain decomposition and stochastic subspace identification methods. Finite element model updating using the measurement data was further performed to reduce the modal property differences between the measurements and those of the finite element model. Over-fitting during the model updating was avoided by using an optimization scheme with a regularization term.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.243-256
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• 2019

Determination of the most meaningful structural modes and gaining insight into how these modes evolve are important issues for long-term structural health monitoring of the long-span bridges. To address this issue, modal parameters identified throughout the life of the bridge need to be compared and linked with each other, which is the process of mode tracking. The modal frequencies for a long-span bridge are typically closely-spaced, sensitive to the environment (e.g., temperature, wind, traffic, etc.), which makes the automated tracking of modal parameters a difficult process, often requiring human intervention. Machine learning methods are well-suited for uncovering complex underlying relationships between processes and thus have the potential to realize accurate and automated modal tracking. In this study, Gaussian mixture model (GMM), a popular unsupervised machine learning method, is employed to automatically determine and update baseline modal properties from the identified unlabeled modal parameters. On this foundation, a new mode tracking method is proposed for automated mode tracking for long-span bridges. Firstly, a numerical example for a three-degree-of-freedom system is employed to validate the feasibility of using GMM to automatically determine the baseline modal properties. Subsequently, the field monitoring data of a long-span bridge are utilized to illustrate the practical usage of GMM for automated determination of the baseline list. Finally, the continuously monitoring bridge acceleration data during strong typhoon events are employed to validate the reliability of proposed method in tracking the changing modal parameters. Results show that the proposed method can automatically track the modal parameters in disastrous scenarios and provide valuable references for condition assessment of the bridge structure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-50
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• 2008

Wind and temperature have been shown to be the critical sources causing changes in the modal properties of large-scale bridges. While the individual effects of wind and temperature on modal variability have been widely studied, the investigation about the effects of multiple environmental factors on structural modal properties was scarcely reported. This paper addresses the modeling of the simultaneous effects of wind and temperature on the modal frequencies of an instrumented cable-stayed bridge. Making use of the long-term monitoring data from anemometers, temperature sensors and accelerometers, a neural network model is formulated to correlate the modal frequency of each vibration mode with wind speed and temperature simultaneously. Research efforts have been made on enhancing the prediction capability of the neural network model through optimal selection of the number of hidden nodes and an analysis of relative strength of effect (RSE) for input reconstruction. The generalization performance of the formulated model is verified with a set of new testing data that have not been used in formulating the model. It is shown that using the significant components of wind speeds and temperatures rather than the whole measurement components as input to neural network can enhance the prediction capability. For the fundamental mode of the bridge investigated, wind and temperature together apply an overall negative action on the modal frequency, and the change in wind condition contributes less to the modal variability than the change in temperature.