Analysis of Data Quality for Ambient Vibration Testing of the Henry Hudson Bridge

Abstract

The quality of test data is an important consideration in conducting field experiments on civil infrastructure. In addition to possible errors due to the experimental setup, the uncertainties due to incomplete knowledge of a structure's behavior and its interactions with the natural environment greatly affect the reliability of the final results. This study discusses the uncertainty related to ambient vibration testing of a long-span steel arch bridge. The consistency of the identified parameters is examined through statistical analyses, and the effects of bandwidth and stationarity on the identified parameters are discussed.