• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.17 no.3_4
• /
• pp.429-444
• /
• 2004

The ambient vibration measurement is a kind of output data-only dynamic testing where the traffics and winds are used as agents responsible for natural or environmental excitation. Therefore an experimental modal analysis procedure for ambient vibration testing will need to base itself on output-only data. The modal analysis involving output-only measurements presents a challenge that requires the use of special modal identification technique, which can deal with very small magnitude of ambient vibration contaminated by noise. Two complementary modal analysis methods are implemented. They are rather simple peak picking (PP) method in frequency domain and more advanced stochastic subspace identification (SSI) method in time domain. This paper presents the application of ambient vibration testing and experimental modal analysis on large civil engineering structures. A 15 storey reinforced concrete shear core building and a concrete filled steel tubular arch bridge have been chosen as two case studies. The results have shown that both techniques can identify the frequencies effectively. The stochastic subspace identification technique can detect frequencies that may possibly be missed by the peak picking method and gives a more reasonable mode shapes in most cases.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.184-194
• /
• 2016

In existing identification methods for on-orbit spacecraft, such as eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA) and subspace method identification (SMI), singular value decomposition (SVD) is used frequently to estimate the modal parameters. However, these identification methods are often used to process the linear time-invariant system, and there is a lower computation efficiency using the SVD when the system order of spacecraft is high. In this study, to improve the computational efficiency in identifying time-varying modal parameters of large spacecraft, a faster recursive algorithm called fast approximated power iteration (FAPI) is employed. This approach avoids the SVD and can be provided as an alternative spacecraft identification method, and the latest modal parameters obtained can be applied for updating the controller parameters timely (e.g. the self-adaptive control problem). In numerical simulations, two large flexible spacecraft models, the Engineering Test Satellite-VIII (ETS-VIII) and Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) satellite, are established. The identification results show that this recursive algorithm can obtain the time-varying modal parameters, and the computation time is reduced significantly.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.447-468
• /
• 2015

Modal identification of civil engineering structures based on ambient vibration measurement has been widely investigated in the past decades, and a variety of output-only operational modal identification methods have been proposed. However, vibration modes, even fundamental low-order modes, are not always identifiable for large-scale structures under ambient vibration excitation. The identifiability of vibration modes, deficiency in modal identification, and criteria to evaluate robustness of the identified modes when applying output-only modal identification techniques to ambient vibration responses were scarcely studied. In this study, the mode identifiability of the cable-stayed Ting Kau Bridge using ambient vibration measurements and the influence of the excitation intensity on the deficiency and robustness in modal identification are investigated with long-term monitoring data of acceleration responses acquired from the bridge under different excitation conditions. It is observed that a few low-order modes, including the second global mode, are not identifiable by common output-only modal identification algorithms under normal ambient excitations due to traffic and monsoon. The deficient modes can be activated and identified only when the excitation intensity attains a certain level (e.g., during strong typhoons). The reason why a few low-order modes fail to be reliably identified under weak ambient vibration excitations and the relation between the mode identifiability and the excitation intensity are addressed through comparing the frequency-domain responses under normal ambient vibration excitations and under typhoon excitations and analyzing the wind speeds corresponding to different response data samples used in modal identification. The threshold value of wind speed (generalized excitation intensity) that makes the deficient modes identifiable is determined.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.395-406
• /
• 2016

Modal parameter identification has received much attention recently for their usefulness in earthquake engineering, damage detection and structural health monitoring. The identification method based on Matrix Pencil technique is adopted in this paper to identify structural modal parameters, such as natural frequencies, damping ratios and modal shapes using impulse vibration responses. This method can also be applied to dynamic responses induced by stationary and white-noise inputs since the auto- and cross-correlation function of the two outputs has the same form as the impulse response dynamic functions. Matrix Pencil method is very robust to noise contained in the measurement data. It has a lower variance of estimates of the parameters of interest than the Polynomial Method, and is also computationally more efficient. The numerical simulation results show that this technique can identify modal parameters accurately even if the noise level is high.

• Journal of KSNVE
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.377-386
• /
• 1999

This paper is a study on model method for estimating system inputs from vibration responses, which is one of indirect input identification methods in frequency domain. The method has advantages over direct inverse method especially when points of operational inputs are inaccessible so that artificial excitation forces cannot be applied to obtain frequency response functions of the complete system. Procedures of extended modal model method are proposed and checked by numerical experiment. Mechanisms of error propagation, i.e., how errors in modal parameters such as poles nad mode shape vectors affect estimation of the input forces, are illustrated. Then, in order to counteract the error propagation, discrete modal filter approach is taken in this paper to compute the inversion of modal matrix in which the most serious errors seem to be generated. Further, a Reduced form of Modified Reciprocal Modal Vector(RMRMV) is proposed for estimating multiple inputs. It is shown to have smaller orthogonality error than MRMV.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.84 no.3
• /
• pp.413-421
• /
• 2022

Modal parameters are the main dynamic characteristics of bridge. This study aims to propose an innovative route to estimate the modal parameters for bridges by using a parked vehicle in which mode shapes with high accuracy and spatial resolution are identified by frequency measurement. Based on the theory of dynamic modification and modal identification, the mathematical formulation between the parked mass induced frequency variation and the modal parameters of a bridge is derived. Then this mathematical formulation is extended to a parked vehicle-bridge system. The arithmetic and processes for estimating the modal parameters based on the identified frequency variation of the vehicle-bridge systems when the vehicle locates at sequentially arranged positions are presented. Finally the proposed method is applied to several simulated bridges of different types. The results indicate that it can estimate the modal parameters with high accuracy and efficiency.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.257-280
• /
• 2014

In this paper, a novel PARAllel FACtor (PARAFAC) decomposition based Blind Source Separation (BSS) algorithm is proposed for modal identification of structures equipped with tuned mass dampers. Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are extremely effective vibration absorbers in tall flexible structures, but prone to get de-tuned due to accidental changes in structural properties, alteration in operating conditions, and incorrect design forecasts. Presence of closely spaced modes in structures coupled with TMDs renders output-only modal identification difficult. Over the last decade, second-order BSS algorithms have shown significant promise in the area of ambient modal identification. These methods employ joint diagonalization of covariance matrices of measurements to estimate the mixing matrix (mode shape coefficients) and sources (modal responses). Recently, PARAFAC BSS model has evolved as a powerful multi-linear algebra tool for decomposing an $n^{th}$ order tensor into a number of rank-1 tensors. This method is utilized in the context of modal identification in the present study. Covariance matrices of measurements at several lags are used to form a $3^{rd}$ order tensor and then PARAFAC decomposition is employed to obtain the desired number of components, comprising of modal responses and the mixing matrix. The strong uniqueness properties of PARAFAC models enable direct source separation with fine spectral resolution even in cases where the number of sensor observations is less compared to the number of target modes, i.e., the underdetermined case. This capability is exploited to separate closely spaced modes of the TMDs using partial measurements, and subsequently to estimate modal parameters. The proposed method is validated using extensive numerical studies comprising of multi-degree-of-freedom simulation models equipped with TMDs, as well as with an experimental set-up.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.115-126
• /
• 2017

The modal identification of large civil structures such as bridges under the ambient vibrational conditions has been widely investigated during the past decade. Many operational modal analysis methods have been proposed and successfully used for identifying the dynamic characteristics of the constructed bridges in service. However, there is very limited research available on reliable criteria for the robustness of these identified modal parameters of the bridge structures. In this study, two time-domain operational modal analysis methods, the data-driven stochastic subspace identification (SSI-DATA) method and the covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification (SSI-COV) method, are employed to identify the modal parameters from field recorded ambient acceleration data. On the basis of the SSI-DATA method, the modal contribution indexes of all identified modes to the measured acceleration data are computed by using the Kalman filter, and their applicability to evaluate the robustness of identified modes is also investigated. Here, the benchmark problem, developed by Hong Kong Polytechnic University with field acceleration measurements under different excitation conditions of a cable-stayed bridge, is adopted to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results from the benchmark study show that the robustness of identified modes can be judged by using their modal contributions to the measured vibration data. A critical value of modal contribution index of 2% for a reliable identifiability of modal parameters is roughly suggested for the benchmark problem.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.711-723
• /
• 2015

This study investigates the identification of added mass and its location in the glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) beam structures. The main emphasis of this paper is to ascertain the importance of inclusion of rotational degrees of freedom (dofs) in the introduction of added mass or damage identification. Two identification indices that include the rotational dofs have been introduced in this paper: the modal force index (MFI) and the modal rotational curvature index (MRCI). The MFI amplifies damage signature using undamaged numerical stiffness matrix which is related to changes in the altered mode shapes from the original mode shapes. The MRCI is obtained by using a higher derivative of rotational mode shapes. Experimental and numerical results are compared with the existing methods leading to a conclusion that the contributions of the rotational modes play a key role in the identification of added mass. The authors believe that the similar results are likely in the case of damage identification also.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.419-433
• /
• 2020

Investigation of structural integrity has been a critical issue in the field of civil engineering for years. Visual inspection is one of the most available methods to explore deteriorative components in structures. Still, this method is not applicable to invisible damage of structures. Alternatively, system identification methods are capable of tracking modal properties of structures over time. The deviation of these dynamic properties can serve as indicators to access structural integrity. In this study, a modal tracking technique using frequency-domain system identification from seismic responses of structures is proposed. The method first segments the measured signals into overlapped sequential portions and then establishes multiple Hankel matrices. Each Hankel matrix is then converted to the frequency domain, and a temporal-average frequency-domain Hankel matrix can be calculated. This study also proposes the frequency band selection that can divide the frequency-domain Hankel matrix into several portions in accordance with referenced natural frequencies. Once these referenced natural frequencies are unavailable, the first few right singular vectors by the singular value decomposition can offer these references. Finally, the frequency-domain stochastic subspace identification tracks the natural frequencies and mode shapes of structures through quick stabilization diagrams. To evaluate performance of the proposed method, a numerical study is carried out. Moreover, the long-term monitoring strong motion records at a specific site are exploited to assess the tracking performance. As seen in results, the proposed method is capable of tracking modal properties through seismic responses of structures.