• 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.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.281-288
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• 2002

It might be true that both experimental and analytic techniques have been developed in the vibration analysis end engineering. It could not be said, however, that the experimental method has been also developed as much as analytic method, such as Finite Element Method One of the reason is that computation time becomes longer and that the solution often diverges depending on the choice of initial value in solving nonlinear equation. The equation in experimental modal analysis is usually composed of the nonlinear term of natural frequency and modal damping ratio, and the linear one of equivalent stiffness. In this study, the nonlinear terms were solved first, and then the linear term was obtained. The experimental modal parameters were estimated, applying the developed experimental modal analysis curve-fitting method to the super-structure model. In addition, the number of modes and modal damping ratio could be easily determined by the developed program with the application of graphical techniques and with easy handling button.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.334-340
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• 2003

Exponential window function Is widely used In impact hammer testing to reduce leakage error as well as to get a good S/N ratio. The larger its decaying rate is, the more effectively the leakage errors are reduced. But if the decay rate of the exponential window is too large, the FRF is distorted. And the modal parameters of the system can not be exactly identified by modal analysis technique. Therefore, it is a difficult problem to determine proper decay rate in impact hammer testing. In this paper, amount of the FRF distortion caused by exponential window is theoretically uncovered. A new circle fitting method is also proposed so that the modal parameters are directly extracted from impulse response spectrum distorted by the exponential-windowed impulse response data. The results by the conventional and proposed circle fitting method are compared through a numerical example.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.533-553
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• 2013

In this paper, system identification of a cable-stayed bridge in Korea, the Hwamyung Bridge, is performed using vibration responses measured by a wireless sensor system. First, an acceleration based-wireless sensor system is employed for the structural health monitoring of the bridge, and wireless sensor nodes are deployed on a deck, a pylon and several selected cables. Second, modal parameters of the bridge are obtained both from measured vibration responses and finite element (FE) analysis. Frequency domain decomposition and stochastic subspace identification methods are used to obtain the modal parameters from the measured vibration responses. The FE model of the bridge is established using commercial FE software package. Third, structural properties of the bridge are updated using a modal sensitivity-based method. The updating work improves the accuracy of the FE model so that structural behaviors of the bridge can be represented better using the updated FE model. Finally, cable forces of the selected cables are also identified and compared with both design and lift-off test values.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.257-271
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• 2017

There are many plain concrete arch bridges in Iran that have been used as railway bridges for more than seventy years. Owe to the fact that these bridges have not been designed seismically, and even may be loaded under high-speed trains, evaluation of fundamental frequencies of the bridges against earthquake and high-speed train vibrations is necessary for considering dynamics effects. To evaluate complex behavior of these bridges, results of field tests are useful. Since it is not possible to perform field tests for all arch bridges, these structures should be simulated correctly by computers for structural assessment. Several parameters are employed to describe the bridges, such as number of spans, length of spans, geometrical and material properties. In this study, results of field tests are used for modal analysis and adapted for 64 three dimensional finite element models with various physical parameters. Computer simulations show length of spans has important effect on fundamental frequencies of plain concrete arch bridge and modal deformations of bridges is in longitudinal and transverse directions. Also, these results demonstrate that fundamental frequencies of bridges decrease after increasing span length and number of spans. Plus, some relations based in the number of spans (n) and span length (l) are proposed for calculation of fundamental frequencies of plain concrete arch bridge.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-152
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• 2011

System identification is a fundamental step towards the application of structural health monitoring and damage detection techniques. On this respect, the development of evolved identification strategies is a priority for obtaining reliable and repeatable baseline modal parameters of an undamaged structure to be adopted as references for future structural health assessments. The paper presents the identification of the modal parameters of the Guangzhou New Television Tower, China, using a data-driven stochastic subspace identification (SSI-data) approach complemented with an appropriate automatic mode selection strategy which proved to be successful in previous literature studies. This well-known approach is based on a clustering technique which is adopted to discriminate structural modes from spurious noise ones. The method is applied to the acceleration measurements made available within the task I of the ANCRiSST benchmark problem, which cover 24 hours of continuous monitoring of the structural response under ambient excitation. These records are then subdivided into a convenient number of data sets and the variability of modal parameter estimates with ambient temperature and mean wind velocity are pointed out. Both 10 minutes and 1 hour long records are considered for this purpose. A comparison with finite element model predictions is finally carried out, using the structural matrices provided within the benchmark, in order to check that all the structural modes contained in the considered frequency interval are effectively identified via SSI-data.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.47-66
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• 2008

The present work utilizes system identification technique for health monitoring of shear building, wherein Parametric State Space modeling has been adopted. The method requires input excitation to the structure and also output acceleration responses of both undamaged and damaged structure obtained from numerically simulated model. Modal parameters like eigen frequencies and eigen vectors have been extracted from the State Space model after introducing appropriate transformation. Least square technique has been utilized for the evaluation of the stiffness matrix after having obtained the modal matrix for the entire structure. Highly accurate values of stiffness of the structure could be evaluated corresponding to both the undamaged as well as damaged state of a structure, while considering noise in the simulated output response analogous to real time scenario. The damaged floor could also be located very conveniently and accurately by this adopted strategy. This method of damage detection can be applied in case of output acceleration responses recorded by sensors from the actual structure. Further, in case of even limited availability of sensors along the height of a multi-storeyed building, the methodology could yield very accurate information related to structural stiffness.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.103-108
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• 2015

This work introduces a modal testing and analysis results of the mock-up for a layered stone pagoda. The pagoda has been horizontally excited by an impact hammer. As to the measured acceleration time responses, the first five lower mode shapes and natural frequency are extracted by the TDD technique. It is observed that the time delay of a shear wave occurs through friction surfaces. Such phenomena cannot be described by using the traditional analytical models such as a continuum cantilever beam model or a discrete shear building model. However, the time delay typically affects only the phases of the pagoda system. The frequencies of the pagoda system are not affected by such time delay. It is found in the first time that the layered stone pagoda system has a set of closely placed modes in near of natural frequency. It is believed that such modes are due to the friction characteristics in friction surfaces. Based on the stick-slip friction model, it seems that the one of the closely placed mode can be a self-excited one.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.195-208
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• 2008

This paper summarizes the experimental vibration-based structural health monitoring study on a historical monument in Jordan. In this work, and within the framework of the European Commission funded project "wide-Range Non-Intrusive Devices Toward Conservation of Historical Monuments in the Mediterranean Area", a seven and a half century old minaret located in Ajloun (73 km north of the capital Amman) is studied. Because of their cultural value, touristic importance and the desire to preserve them for the future, only non-destructive tests were allowed for the experimental investigation of such heritage structures. Therefore, after dimensional measurements and determination of the current state of damage in the selected monument, ambient vibration tests are conducted to measure the accelerations at strategic locations of the system. Output-only modal identification technique is applied to extract the modal parameters such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. A Non-linear version of SAP 2000 computer program is used to develop a three-dimensional finite element model of the minaret. The developed numerical model is then updated according to the modal parameters obtained experimentally by the ambient-vibration test-results and the measured characteristics of old stone and deteriorated mortar. Moreover, a parametric identification method using the N4Sid state space model is employed to model the dynamic behavior of the minaret and to build up a robust, immune and noise tolerant model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.523-538
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• 2017

A series of field vibration tests are conducted on the Runyang Suspension Bridge during both the construction and operational stages. The purpose of this study is devoted to the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the suspension tower. After the tower was erected, an array of accelerometers was deployed to study the evolution of its modal parameters during the construction process. Dynamic tests were first performed under the freestanding tower condition and then under the tower-cable condition after the superstructure was installed. Based on the identified modal parameters, the effect of the pile-soil-structure interaction on dynamic characteristics of the suspension tower is investigated. Moreover, the stiffness of the pile foundation is successfully identified using a probabilistic finite model updating method. Furthermore, challenges of identifying the dynamic properties of the tower from the coupled responses of the tower-cable system are discussed in detail. It's found that compared with the identified results from the freestanding tower, the longitudinal and torsional natural frequencies of the tower in the tower-cable system have changed significantly, while the lateral mode frequencies change slightly. The identified modal results from measurements by the structural health monitoring system further confirmed that the vibrations of the bridge subsystems (i.e., the tower, the suspended deck and the main cable) are strongly coupled with one another.