• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제11권1호
• /
• pp.123-134
• /
• 2013

Identifying structural modal parameters, especially those modes within high frequency range, from ambient data is still a challenging problem due to various kinds of uncertainty involved in vibration measurements. A procedure applying an ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method is proposed for accurate and robust structural modal identification. In the proposed method, the EEMD process is first implemented to decompose the original ambient data to a set of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), which are zero-mean time series with energy in narrow frequency bands. Subsequently, a Sub-PolyMAX method is performed in narrow frequency bands by using IMFs as primary data for structural modal identification. The merit of the proposed method is that it performs structural identification in narrow frequency bands (take IMFs as primary data), unlike the traditional method in the whole frequency space (take original measurements as primary data), thus it produces more accurate identification results. A numerical example and a multiple-span continuous steel bridge have been investigated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권4호
• /
• pp.1117-1131
• /
• 2019

Tanks are used extensively in many engineering areas for spent fuel pool structures at nuclear power plants or for water storage tanks in bulk carriers. To ensure the structural integrity of such tanks when under dynamic loads, modal characteristics such as natural frequencies, participation factors and mode shapes should be known. Investigated in this study are the modal characteristics of a square tank by the finite element method. This approach can be used with subsequent dynamic analyses such as a response spectrum analysis or a harmonic analysis. Finite element models are prepared to determine the natural frequencies and mode shapes, which are easy to find the modal characteristics of a fluid-filled square tank. The effects of the fluid contained in the tank and the boundary conditions at top and bottom ends on the modal characteristics are assessed by several finite element analyses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제24권2호
• /
• pp.243-256
• /
• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제15권2호
• /
• 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.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제37권6호
• /
• pp.445-460
• /
• 2023

Accurate estimation of modal parameters (i.e., natural frequency, damping ratio) of tall buildings is of great importance to their structural design, structural health monitoring, vibration control, and state assessment. Based on the combination of variational mode decomposition, smoothed discrete energy separation algorithm-1, and Half-cycle energy operator (VMD-SH), this paper presents a method for structural modal parameter estimation. The variational mode decomposition is proved to be effective and reliable for decomposing the mixed-signal with low frequencies and damping ratios, and the validity of both smoothed discrete energy separation algorithm-1 and Half-cycle energy operator in the modal identification of a single modal system is verified. By incorporating these techniques, the VMD-SH method is able to accurately identify and extract the various modes present in a signal, providing improved insights into its underlying structure and behavior. Subsequently, a numerical study of a four-story frame structure is conducted using the Newmark-β method, and it is found that the relative errors of natural frequency and damping ratio estimated by the presented method are much smaller than those by traditional methods, validating the effectiveness and accuracy of the combined method for the modal identification of the multi-modal system. Furthermore, the presented method is employed to estimate modal parameters of a full-scale tall building utilizing acceleration responses. The identified results verify the applicability and accuracy of the presented VMD-SH method in field measurements. The study demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed VMD-SH method in accurately estimating modal parameters of tall buildings from acceleration response data.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제17권3호
• /
• pp.413-429
• /
• 2016

The recent research on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) has revealed the linkage between proper orthogonal modes and linear normal modes. This paper presents an investigation into the modal identifiability of an instrumented cable-stayed bridge using an adapted POD technique with a band-pass filtering scheme. The band-pass POD method is applied to the datasets available for this benchmark study, aiming to identify the vibration modes of the bridge and find out the so-called deficient modes which are unidentifiable under normal excitation conditions. It turns out that the second mode of the bridge cannot be stably identified under weak wind conditions and is therefore regarded as a deficient mode. To judge if the deficient mode is due to its low contribution to the structural response under weak wind conditions, modal coordinates are derived for different modes by the band-pass POD technique and an energy participation factor is defined to evaluate the energy participation of each vibration mode under different wind excitation conditions. From the non-blind datasets, it is found that the vibration modes can be reliably identified only when the energy participation factor exceeds a certain threshold value. With the identified threshold value, modal identifiability in use of the blind datasets from the same structure is examined.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회A
• /
• pp.984-989
• /
• 2008

An estimation of high-order damping in flexible multibody dynamic simulation is introduced in this paper. The suggested damping model based on the experimental modal analysis leads to more accurate correlation results comparing to the traditional linear damping model because it directly uses the modal parameters of each mode achieved from experiment even high frequency modes. The modal parameters until the 5th mode are extracted from the experimental modal testing of the flexible beam using a high speed camera. And using the measured damping ratio and natural frequency until the 5th mode, the generic damping model is constructed. Then, the ANCF (absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation) simulation results are compared to experimental results until the 5th mode.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• 제15권3호
• /
• pp.263-273
• /
• 2018

Operational modal analysis is being widely used in aerospace, mechanical and civil engineering. Common research fields include optimal design and rehabilitation under dynamic loads, structural health monitoring, modification and control of dynamic response and analytical model updating. In many practical cases, influence of noise contamination in the recorded data makes it difficult to identify the modal parameters accurately. In this paper, an improved frequency domain method called Enhanced Least Square Complex Frequency (eLSCF) is developed to extract modal parameters from noisy recorded data. The proposed method makes the use of pre-defined approximate mode shape vectors to refine the cross-power spectral density matrix and extract fundamental frequency for the mode of interest. The efficiency of the proposed method is illustrated using an example five story shear frame loaded by random excitation and different noise signals.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• 제19권2호
• /
• pp.385-403
• /
• 2015

This paper presents the status improvement of an old damaged deck type rural road steel truss bridge through the modal parametric study after partial retrofitting. The dynamic and static tests on bridge were carried out as in damaged state and after partial retrofitting. The dynamic testing on the steel bridge was carried out using accelerometers under similar environmental conditions with same speed of the moving vehicle. The comparison of the modal parameters i.e., frequency, mode shape mode shape curvature, modal strain energy, along with the deflection parameter are studied with respect to structural analytical model parameters. The status up gradation for the upper and downstream truss obtained was different due to differential level of damage in the bridge. Also after retrofitting the structural elemental behavior obtained was not same as desired. The damage level obtained through static tests carried out using total station indicated further retrofitting requirement.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제84권3호
• /
• 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.