Simultaneous identification of structural parameters and input time history from output-only measurements

Abstract

A new time-domain method is suggested in this paper for simultaneous identification of the structural parameters and the time history of the input excitation using output-only measurements. The proposed method is based on an iterative identification procedure consisting of the least-squares identification technique and a modification process between each iterative step. The modification process is introduced to convert the spatial information of the external excitation into mathematical conditions. First, the unknown force vector is conjectured through the equation of motion using the initial guess of the structural parameters and the measured structural responses. The estimated input force vector is then modified to force it comply with the spatial distribution of the external excitations. The modified input force vector is further used to provide new estimation of structural parameters. Repeat the aforementioned procedure until the structural parameters satisfy the preset convergence criterion. Numerical examples as shear building and truss bridge model are employed to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method. In the numerical examples, typical scenario of complete and noise-free as well as incomplete and noise-contaminated output measurements are considered. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately identify both the structural parameters and the input time history for the cases that the structural responses are not polluted or slightly contaminated by measurement noise.