A Sequential Framework for Improving Identifiability of FE Model Updating using Static and Dynamic Data

Abstract

By virtue of the advances in sensing techniques, finite element (FE) model updating (FEMU) using static and dynamic data has been recently employed to improve identification on updating parameters. Using heterogeneous data can provide useful information to improve parameter identifiability in FEMU. It is worth noting that the useful information from the heterogeneous data may be diluted in the conventional FEM framework. The conventional FEMU framework in previous studies have used heterogeneous data at once to compute residuals in the objective function, and they are condensed to be a scalar. In this implementation, it should be careful to formulate the objective function with proper weighting factors to consider the scale of measurement and relative significances. Otherwise, the information from heterogeneous data cannot be efficiently utilized. For FEMU of the bridge, parameter compensation may exist due to mutual dependence among updating parameters. This aggravates the parameter identifiability to make the results of the FEMU worse. To address the limitation of the conventional FEMU method, this study proposes a sequential framework for the FEMU of existing bridges. The proposed FEMU method uses two steps to utilize static and dynamic data in a sequential manner. By using them separately, the influence of the parameter compensation can be suppressed. The proposed FEMU method is verified through numerical and experimental study. Through these verifications, the limitation of the conventional FEMU method is investigated in terms of parameter identifiability and predictive performance. The proposed FEMU method shows much smaller variabilities in the updating parameters than the conventional one by providing the better predictions than those of the conventional one in calibration and validation data. Based on numerical and experimental study, the proposed FEMU method can improve the parameter identifiability using the heterogeneous data and it seems to be promising and efficient framework for FEMU of the existing bridge.