Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea ISSN:1229-3059(Print) 2287-2302(Online) 한국전산구조공학회 논문집

This paper presents an on-line finite element model updating method for in-service structures using measured data. Conventional updating methods, which are based on numerical optimization, are not efficient for on-line updating because they generally require repeated eigenvalue analyses until convergence criteria are met. The proposed method enables fully automated on-line finite element model updating, almost simultaneously with vibration measurement, without any user intervention or off-line procedures. The automated covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification (Cov-SSI) method is utilized to identify modal frequencies and vectors, and the identified modal data is fed to the neural network of the inverse eigenvalue function to produce the updated finite element model parameters. Numerical examples for a wind excited 20-story building structure shows that the proposed method can update the series of finite element model parameters automatically. It is also shown that sudden changes in the structural parameters can be detected and traced successfully.