Finite Element Model Updating Based on Data Fusion of Acceleration and Angular Velocity

Abstract

The finite element (FE) model updating is a commonly used approach in civil engineering, enabling damage detection, design verification, and load capacity identification. In the FE model updating, acceleration responses are generally employed to determine modal properties of a structure, which are subsequently used to update the initial FE model. While the acceleration-based model updating has been successful in finding better approximations of the physical systems including material and sectional properties, the boundary conditions have been considered yet to be difficult to accurately estimate as the acceleration responses only correspond to translational degree-of-freedoms (DOF). Recent advancement in the sensor technology has enabled low-cost, high-precision gyroscopes that can be adopted in the FE model updating to provide angular information of a structure. This study proposes a FE model updating strategy based on data fusion of acceleration and angular velocity. The usage of both acceleration and angular velocity gives richer information than the sole use of acceleration, allowing the enhanced performance particularly in determining the boundary conditions. A numerical simulation on a simply supported beam is presented to demonstrate the proposed FE model updating approach.