A Robotic Automated Solution for Operational Modal Analysis of Bridges with High-Resolution Mode Shape Recovery
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 150, Issue 8
Abstract
This study presents a robot-assisted solution for the automated identification of bridge frequencies and high-spatial-resolution mode shapes using a minimal number of sensors. The proposed approach employs programmable wheeled robots, whose movement can be remotely controlled, as the mobile platform carrying accelerometers. The output-only frequency domain decomposition (FDD) algorithm is adopted for use with the proposed stop-and-go mobile sensing scheme, resulting in the identification of frequencies and high-resolution mode shapes. The solution was verified via two numerical case studies and was validated on a full-scale test of a footbridge. The results reveal that the frequencies and high-resolution shapes of the excited structural modes are identified successfully using only two accelerometers, confirming the satisfactory practicality and efficiency of the proposed solution.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The research was conducted at the Singapore-ETH Centre, which was established collaboratively between ETH Zurich and the National Research Foundation Singapore. This research is supported by the project “Dynamic mobile sensing platform” funded by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) program. The authors express their gratitude for the financial support received from the Chinese State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering through Grant no. SLDRCE19-A-11 from the program “Using mobile sensing for the structural condition assessment of short- and medium-span bridges.” The authors thank Wei Liu from the Singapore-ETH Centre and Shuaiwen Cui from the Nanyang Technological University for their assistance during the field tests.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 150 • Issue 8 • August 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 30, 2023
Accepted: Feb 28, 2024
Published online: May 24, 2024
Published in print: Aug 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Oct 24, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Architectural engineering
- Automatic identification systems
- Automation and robotics
- Bridge engineering
- Bridge management
- Building management
- Case studies
- Detection methods
- Engineering fundamentals
- Maintenance and operation
- Measurement (by type)
- Methodology (by type)
- Numerical analysis
- Research methods (by type)
- Sensors and sensing
- Structural engineering
- Systems engineering
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