• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.631-641
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• 2018

This paper outlines a computational procedure for the effective merging of diverse sensor measurements, displacement and acceleration signals in particular, in order to successfully monitor and simulate the current health condition of civil structures under dynamic loadings. In particular, it investigates a Kalman Filter implementation for the Heterogeneous Data Fusion of displacement and acceleration response signals of a structural system toward dynamic identification purposes. The procedure is perspectively aimed at enhancing extensive remote displacement measurements (commonly affected by high noise), by possibly integrating them with a few standard acceleration measurements (considered instead as noise-free or corrupted by slight noise only). Within the data fusion analysis, a Kalman Filter algorithm is implemented and its effectiveness in improving noise-corrupted displacement measurements is investigated. The performance of the filter is assessed based on the RMS error between the original (noise-free, numerically-determined) displacement signal and the Kalman Filter displacement estimate, and on the structural modal parameters (natural frequencies) that can be extracted from displacement signals, refined through the combined use of displacement and acceleration recordings, through inverse analysis algorithms for output-only modal dynamics identification, based on displacements.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.527-544
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• 2009

In this study, the periodic seismic performance evaluation scheme is proposed using a structural health monitoring system in terms of seismic fragility. An instrumented highway bridge is used to demonstrate the evaluation procedure involving (1) measuring ambient vibration of a bridge under general vehicle loadings, (2) identifying modal parameters from the measured acceleration data by applying output-only modal identification method, (3) updating a preliminary finite element model (obtained from structural design drawings) with the identified modal parameters using real-coded genetic algorithm, (4) analyzing nonlinear response time histories of the structure under earthquake excitations, and finally (5) developing fragility curves represented by a log-normal distribution function using maximum likelihood estimation. It is found that the seismic fragility of a highway bridge can be updated using extracted modal parameters and can also be monitored further by utilizing the instrumented structural health monitoring system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.229-245
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• 2023

The absence of excitation measurements may pose a big challenge in the application of structural damage identification owing to the fact that substantial effort is needed to reconstruct or identify unknown input force. To address this issue, in this paper, an iterative strategy, a synergy of Tikhonov regularization method for force identification and modified Jaya algorithm (M-Jaya) for stiffness parameter identification, is developed for damage identification with partial output-only responses. On the one hand, the probabilistic clustering learning technique and nonlinear updating equation are introduced to improve the performance of standard Jaya algorithm. On the other hand, to deal with the difficulty of selection the appropriate regularization parameters in traditional Tikhonov regularization, an improved L-curve method based on B-spline interpolation function is presented. The applicability and effectiveness of the iterative strategy for simultaneous identification of structural damages and unknown input excitation is validated by numerical simulation on a 21-bar truss structure subjected to ambient excitation under noise free and contaminated measurements cases, as well as a series of experimental tests on a five-floor steel frame structure excited by sinusoidal force. The results from these numerical and experimental studies demonstrate that the proposed identification strategy can accurately and effectively identify damage locations and extents without the requirement of force measurements. The proposed M-Jaya algorithm provides more satisfactory performance than genetic algorithm, Gaussian bare-bones artificial bee colony and Jaya algorithm.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.369-378
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• 2021

This paper reviewed a few output-only system identification algorithms and identified the shortcomings of those popular blind source separation methods. To address the issues such as less sensors than the targeted modal modes (under-determinate problem), repeated natural frequencies as well as systems with complex mode shapes, this paper proposed a complex wavelet modified second order blind identification method (CWMSOBI) by transforming the time domain problem into time-frequency domain. The wavelet coefficients with different dominant frequencies can be used to address the under-determinate problem, while complex mode shapes are addressed by introducing the complex wavelet transformation. Numerical simulations with both high and low signal-to-noise ratios validate that CWMSOBI can overcome the above-mentioned issues while obtaining more accurate identified results than other blind identification methods.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.445-470
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• 2016

In this study, the Bayesian probabilistic framework is investigated for modal identification and modal identifiability based on the field measurements provided in the structural health monitoring benchmark problem of an instrumented cable-stayed bridge named Ting Kau Bridge (TKB). The comprehensive structural health monitoring system on the cable-stayed TKB has been operated for more than ten years and it is recognized as one of the best test-beds with readily available field measurements. The benchmark problem of the cable-stayed bridge is established to stimulate investigations on modal identifiability and the present paper addresses this benchmark problem from the Bayesian prospective. In contrast to deterministic approaches, an appealing feature of the Bayesian approach is that not only the optimal values of the modal parameters can be obtained but also the associated estimation uncertainty can be quantified in the form of probability distribution. The uncertainty quantification provides necessary information to evaluate the reliability of parametric identification results as well as modal identifiability. Herein, the Bayesian spectral density approach is conducted for output-only modal identification and the Bayesian model class selection approach is used to evaluate the significance of different modes in modal identification. Detailed analysis on the modal identification and modal identifiability based on the measurements of the bridge will be presented. Moreover, the advantages and potentials of Bayesian probabilistic framework on structural health monitoring will be discussed.

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

• Wind and Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.157-178
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• 2013

Output-only modal parameter identification is based on the assumption that external forces on a linear structure are white noise. However, harmonic excitations are also often present in real structural vibrations. In particular, it has been realized that the use of forced acceleration responses without knowledge of external forces can pose a problem in the modal parameter identification, because an external force is imparted to its impulse acceleration response function. This paper provides a three-stage identification procedure as a solution to the problem of harmonic and white noise excitations in the acceleration responses of a linear dynamic system. This procedure combines the uses of the mode indicator function, the complex mode indication function, the enhanced frequency response function, an iterative rational fraction polynomial method and mode shape inspection for the correlation-related functions of the force-embedded acceleration responses. The procedure is verified via numerical simulation of a five-floor shear building and a two-dimensional frame and also applied to ambient vibration data of a large-span roof structure. Results show that the modal parameters of these dynamic systems can be satisfactorily identified under the requirement of wide separation between vibration modes and harmonic excitations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1223-1228
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• 2006

This paper presents an experimental investigation of a recently developed Kronecker Product (KP) method to determine the type, location, and intensity of structural damage from an identified state-space model of the system. Although this inverse problem appears to be highly nonlinear, the system mass, stiffness, and damping matrices are identified through a series of transformations, and with the aid of the Kronecker product, only linear operations are involved in the process. Since a state-space model can be identified directly from input-output data, an initial finite element model and/or model updating are not required. The test structure is a two-degree-of-freedom torsional system in which mass and stiffness are arbitrarily adjustable to simulate various conditions of structural damage. This simple apparatus demonstrates the capability of the damage detection method by not only identifying the location and the extent of the damage, but also differentiating the nature of the damage. The potential applicability of the KP method for structural damage identification is confirmed by laboratory test.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.423-442
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• 2015

This study examines the wavelet transform for output-only system identification of ambient excited engineering structures with emphasis on its utilization for modal parameter estimation of high-order and closely-spaced modes. Sophisticated time-frequency resolution analysis has been carried out by employing the modified complex Morlet wavelet function for better adaption and flexibility of the time-frequency resolution to extract two closely-spaced frequencies. Furthermore, bandwidth refinement techniques such as a bandwidth resolution adaptation, a broadband filtering technique and a narrowband filtering one have been proposed in the study for the special treatments of high-order and closely-spaced modal parameter estimation. Ambient responses of a 5-story steel frame building have been used in the numerical example, using the proposed bandwidth refinement techniques, for estimating the modal parameters of the high-order and closely-spaced modes. The first five natural frequencies and damping ratios of the structure have been estimated; furthermore, the comparison among the various proposed bandwidth refinement techniques has also been examined.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.391-405
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• 2019

Compared to the ambient vibration test mainly identifying the structural modal parameters, such as frequency, damping and mode shapes, the impact testing, which benefits from measuring both impacting forces and structural responses, has the merit to identify not only the structural modal parameters but also more detailed structural parameters, in particular flexibility. However, in traditional impact tests, an impacting hammer or artificial excitation device is employed, which restricts the efficiency of tests on various bridge structures. To resolve this problem, we propose a new method whereby a moving vehicle is taken as a continuous exciter and develop a corresponding flexibility identification theory, in which the continuous wheel forces induced by the moving vehicle is considered as structural input and the acceleration response of the bridge as the output, thus a structural flexibility matrix can be identified and then structural deflections of the bridge under arbitrary static loads can be predicted. The proposed method is more convenient, time-saving and cost-effective compared with traditional impact tests. However, because the proposed test produces a spatially continuous force while classical impact forces are spatially discrete, a new flexibility identification theory is required, and a novel structural identification method involving with equivalent load distribution, the enhanced Frequency Response Function (eFRFs) construction and modal scaling factor identification is proposed to make use of the continuous excitation force to identify the basic modal parameters as well as the structural flexibility. Laboratory and numerical examples are given, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, parametric analysis including road roughness, vehicle speed, vehicle weight, vehicle's stiffness and damping are conducted and the results obtained demonstrate that the developed method has strong robustness except that the relative error increases with the increase of measurement noise.