Changes in modal parameters of a steel truss bridge due to artificial damage

This study investigated how damage changes the modal parameters of a real bridge by means of a field experiment which was conducted on a real steel truss bridge consecutively subjected to four artificial damage scenarios. In the experiment, both the forced and free vibrations of the bridge were recorded, the former for identifying higher modes available exclusively and the latter for lower modes with higher resolution. Results show that modal parameters are little affected by damage causing low stress redistribution. Modal frequencies decrease as damage causing high stress redistribution is applied; such a change can be observed if the damage is at the non-nodal point of the corresponding mode shape. Mode shapes are distorted due to asymmetric damage; they show an amplification in the damaged side as damage is applied at the non-nodal point. Torsion modes become more dominant as damage is applied either asymmetrically or on an element against large design loads. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Structural damage diagnosis of steel truss bridges by outlier detection

This study discusses structural damage diagnosis of real steel truss bridges by measuring trafficinduced vibration of bridges and utilizing a damage indicator derived from linear system parameters of a time series model. On-site damage experiments were carried out on real steel truss bridges. Artificial damage was applied to the bridge by severing a truss member with a cutting machine.Vehicle-induced vibrations of the bridges before and after applying damagewere measured and used in structural damage diagnosis of the bridges. Changes in the damage indicator are detected by Mahalanobis-Taguchi system (MTS) which is one of multivariate outlier analyses. The damage indicator and outlier detection was successfully applied to detect anomalies in the steel truss bridges utilizing vehicle-induced vibrations. Observations through this study demonstrate feasibility of the proposed approach for real world applications.

Extracting statistically dominant modes of a steel truss bridge from vehicle-induced vibrations

This study is intended to investigate the validity of the stability diagram (SD) aided multivariate autoregressive (MAR) analysis for identifying modal parameters of a real truss bridge. The MAR models are adopted to fit the time series of the dynamic accelerations recorded from a number of observation points on the bridge; then the modal parameters are extracted from the MAR model coefficient matrix. The SD is adopted to determine statistically dominant modes. In plotting the SD, a number of stability criteria are further adopted for filtering out those modes with unstable modal parameters. By the present method, the first five modal frequencies and mode shapes are identified with very high precision, while the damping ratios are identified with high precision for the 1st mode but with poorer precision for higher modes. Moreover, the ability of the SD in selecting structural modes without getting involved in any model-order optimization problem is highlighted through a comparison study.

Experimental Active Vibration Control in Truss Structures Considering Uncertainties in System Parameters

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Robust control applications for smart truss structure

A finite element modeling of an intelligent truss structure with piezoelectric stack actuators for the purpose of active damping and structural vibration attenuation is presented. This paper concerns with the following issues aspects: the design of intelligent truss structure considering electro-mechanical coupling between the host structure and piezoelectric stack actuators; the H 2 norm approach to search for optimal placement of actuators and sensors; and finally some aspects in robust control techniques. The electro-mechanical behavior of piezoelectric elements is directly related to the successful application of the actuators in truss structures. In order to achieve the desired damping in the interested bandwidth frequency it is used the H ∞ output feedback solved by convex optimization. The constraints to be reached are written by linear matrix inequalities (LMI). The paper concludes with a numerical example, using Matlab and Simulink, in a cantilevered, 2-bay space truss structure. The results demonstrated the approach applicability.

Optimal placement of sensors/actuators in truss structures with known disturbances

An important stage in the solution of active vibration control in flexible structures is the optimal placement of sensors and actuators. In many works, the positioning of these devices in systems governed for parameter distributed is, mainly, based, in controllability approach or criteria of performance. The positions that enhance such parameters are considered optimal. These techniques do not take in account the space variation of disturbances. An way to enhance the robustness of the control design would be to locate the actuators considering the space distribution of the worst case of disturbances. This paper is addressed to include in the formulation of problem of optimal location of sensors and piezoelectric actuators the effect of external disturbances. The paper concludes with a numerical simulation in a truss structure considering that the disturbance is applied in a known point a priori. As objective function the C norm system is used. The LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) controller was used to quantify performance of different sensors/actuators configurations.

An efficient modal control strategy for the active vibration control of a truss structure

In this paper an efficient modal control strategy is described for the active vibration control of a truss structure. In this approach, a feedback force is applied to each mode to be controlled according to a weighting factor that is determined by assessing how much each mode is excited by the primary source. The strategy is effective provided that the primary source is at a fixed position on the structure, and that the source is stationary in the statistical sense. To test the effectiveness of the control strategy it is compared with an alternative, established approach namely, Independent Modal Space Control (IMSC). Numerical simulations show that with the new strategy it is possible to significantly reduce the control effort required, with a minimal reduction in control performance. © 2007 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

A note on non-linear phenomena in a non-ideal oscillator, with a snap-through truss absorber, including parameter uncertainties

This work considers the vibrating system that consists of a snap-through truss absorber coupled to an oscillator under excitation of an electric motor with an eccentricity and limited power, characterizing a non-ideal oscillator. It is aimed to use the non-linearity and quasi-zero stiffness of absorber (snap-through truss absorber) to obtain a significantly attenuation the jump phenomenon. There is also an interest to exhibit the reduction of Sommerfeld effect, to confirm the saturation phenomenon occurrence and show the power transfer in a non-linear structure, evidencing the pumping energy. As shown by simulations in this work, this absorber allows the energy pumping before and during the jump phenomenon, decreasing the higher amplitudes of considered system. Additionally, the occurrence of saturation phenomenon due use of snap-through truss absorber is verified. The analysis of parameter uncertainties was introduced. Sensitivity of system with parametric errors demonstrated a trustable system. © IMechE 2012.

Análise de um oscilador não linear acoplado a um absorvedor tipo snap through truss (STTA)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Using of a snap-through truss absorber in the attenuation of the sommerfeld effect

This work, considers a vibrating system, which consists of a snap-through truss absorber (STTA) coupled to an oscillator, under excitation of an DC motor, with an eccentricity and limited power, characterizing a non-ideal oscillator (NIO). It is aimed to use the absorber STTA, to establish the conditions, that we have the maxim attenuation of the jumpphenomenon (Sommerfeld Effect). Here, weare interestedin determining the conditions of the vibrating system, in which there arereduced amplitudes of the oscillator, when it passes through the region of resonance.

Active modal damping control of a smart truss structure using a self-organizing fuzzy controller

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

On the Insurmountable Size of Truss-like Structures

Galileo postulated the existence of an insurmountable size for stone columns bearing a useful load as the size for which the structure is only able to resist its self-weight. Herein a method for the determination of the unsurmountable size for truss-like structures is shown, given the form of these structures and the ratio between the allowable stress and the specific weight of the material (the material structural scope). Three types of bars are considered: straight bars, with solid and hollow rectangular cross-section, and catenary bars with circular cross-section —a limit and theoretical case for estimating a meaningful upper bound of the structural scope—. An approximate rule to estimate the structural efficiency —here named GA rule— is shown, and is compared with numerical solutions using the proposed method.

A field experiment on a steel Gerber-truss bridge for damage detection utilizing vehicle-induced vibrations

A field experiment was conducted on a real continuous steel Gerber-truss bridge with artificial damage applied. This article summarizes the results of the experiment for bridge damage detection utilizing traffic-induced vibrations. It investigates the sensitivities of a number of quantities to bridge damage including the identified modal parameters and their statistical patterns, Nair’s damage indicator and its statistical pattern and different sets of measurement points. The modal parameters are identified by autoregressive time-series models. The decision on bridge health condition is made and the sensitivity of variables is evaluated with the aid of the Mahalanobis–Taguchi system, a multivariate pattern recognition tool. Several observations are made as follows. For the modal parameters, although bridge damage detection can be achieved by performing Mahalanobis–Taguchi system on certain modal parameters of certain sets of measurement points, difficulties were faced in subjective selection of meaningful bridge modes and low sensitivity of the statistical pattern of the modal parameters to damage. For Nair’s damage indicator, bridge damage detection could be achieved by performing Mahalanobis–Taguchi system on Nair’s damage indicators of most sets of measurement points. As a damage indicator, Nair’s damage indicator was superior to the modal parameters. Three main advantages were observed: it does not require any subjective decision in calculating Nair’s damage indicator, thus potential human errors can be prevented and an automatic detection task can be achieved; its statistical pattern has high sensitivity to damage and, finally, it is flexible regarding the choice of sets of measurement points.