Automatic modal identification of bridges based on free vibration response and variational mode decomposition technique

Free vibration tests are often performed for the dynamic characterization of structural systems and components. In the field of road bridges monitoring, such tests require minimal equipment (i.e., a sparse network of few sensors, even a single one) in order to gather – quickly and at low cost – some essential information about the dynamic behavior of the structure. The experimental free-vibration response is thus processed for estimating structural modal features which, in turn, can be useful to corroborate or update available numerical models as well as to evaluate current bridge conditions. Within this framework, an efficient computational strategy is here developed for the modal identification of bridges based on their free vibration response. The procedure combines the variational mode decomposition technique with the area ratio-based damping identification method, which ensures enhanced robustness to noise-related effects in field-test signals. A novel procedure is implemented to make the whole identification process fully automatic, in such a way that it does not depend on specific structural features (e.g., to identify even closely-spaced modes) or subjective user’s settings. After a preliminary validation with a synthetic multi-modal signal, the proposed procedure is applied to two real case-studies. The first case-study deals with the identification of natural frequencies, modal damping ratios and mode shapes of prestressed concrete girder bridge decks. Particularly, experimental natural frequencies and mode shapes are compared with numerical predictions obtained from a finite element model of the bridge. The dynamic characterization of the cables of a cable-stayed bridge is considered in the second case-study. Herein, experimental natural frequencies of all the stay-cables are initially analyzed for estimating their stress levels, which have been critically analyzed to detect the existence of relaxation losses. Moreover, modal damping ratios of all the stay-cables are identified and compared to estimates obtained by alternative ambient-vibration-based techniques.