Bridge Model Updating Using Response Surface Method

The purpose of model updating is to modify the finite element model of a structure in order to obtain better agreement between the numerical and field measured structure responses. In this proposed method the response surface method is used for the best experimental design of the parameters to be updated, based on which numerical analysis can be performed in order to obtain explicit relationships between the structural responses and parameters from the simulation results. The parameters are then be updated using the genetic algorithm by minimizing an objective function. After a numerical example of a simply-supported beam is used to demonstrate the concept, this developed methodology has also been applied to the model updating of an existing bridge. Results show that this method works well and achieves reasonable physical explanations for the updated parameters.