OE44055 Load Identification and Monitoring of Structures:

Assignment 2017
Vibration Analysis of a five-storey building

Complaints regarding excessive vibrations were received by the owners of a business renting
office space on the third floor of a five-storey building. Vibration tests were subsequently
performed on the building, and your consulting company, DynaTest, were hired to perform the
vibration assessment. During the dynamic testing, accelerometers were placed at different
locations on the structure to record its response during a) night-time, when the building is
mostly empty, and b) day-time, when the lower three storeys are used as offices and the fourth
floor currently houses a power aerobics studio. Your company has been provided with the
measured data as well as a finite element (FE) model of the structure and are asked to:

a) identify the in situ dynamic properties (natural frequencies/modes) of the structure

b) calibrate the FE model if necessary
c) identify the main forces that were acting on the structure during the day-time test.

In the following paragraphs, you are given more detailed information on the structure/FE
model, the assumptions you are allowed to make with regard to the loading, and the expected
output for each of the three parts of the assignment mentioned above. You are to prepare a
report in which you present as well as analyze/discuss your results, and are to hand this in
before 12:00 on June 23rd at CEG room 2.82, or drop it in the blue box in front of CEG room 2.91.

Finite element model

The building in question is constructed from reinforced concrete, and is founded on rock.
Concrete with different specifications (M40, M35, and M30) has been used for the columns,
lower two floors, and upper three floors, respectively. You have been provided with a simplified,
but dynamically compatible 2D FE model of this structure. The first calculated bending mode for
this model is shown in Figure 1.

The dimensions of the columns and floors are specified in the

provided FE code. All structural components are modelled using 2-
node Euler Bernoulli beam elements having three degrees of freedom
(DOF) at each node: translations in the x and y direction and rotation
around the z axis. From the original technical drawings of the building
it is not completely clear how the floors are connected to the walls. To
account for this uncertainty kinematic constraints have been defined
to model flexibility in the floor-to-wall connections. These constraints
linearly relate the kinematics of the rotational DOFs of the floor to
those of the columns (at their intersection). A kinematic constraint
factor of 1 signifies a clamped connection, whereas a factor of 30 and
above can be used to model a hinged connection. It is assumed that
Figure 1: First bending mode the floor-to-wall connections of respectively the bottom 2 and top 3
floors are similar, so that only two kinematic constraint factors are defined for each of these
floor groups. Some uncertainty also exists regarding the floor mass, especially since (only) the
bottom 2 floors were retrofitted with modern construction materials and floor coverings in
2014. This uncertainty has been modelled by defining additional floor masses per unit length for
each of the two floor groups.

Excitation
Apart from ambient vibrations related to seismic noise
or nearby human activities, the building is excited by a
rather constant northerly wind (corresponding to the
left side of the building as it is shown in Figure 1). The
wind load can be modelled as an uniformly distributed
load over the height of the structure. When aerobics
classes are active on the 4th floor, a considerable share of
the total dynamic load can be attributed to this activity.
For simplicity, it is assumed that this load can be
modelled as a concentrated load acting at the center of the floor.

Expected output
To guide you through the process, a set of subtasks are defined below. Also indicated are the
weights that will be assigned to the different subcomponents when grading the final report.
Please note that your final report should not contain merely a list of answers to these questions, but
should have the structure of a technical report for work performed on request by a consulting
company specialized in vibration analysis.
1. Estimate the natural frequencies/modes of the structure by means of frequency domain
decomposition [16pts].
a) Estimate the output spectral density matrix dd () by taking the average of the
spectral densities of an appropriate number of time segments.
- 2 pts
b) Calculate the singular value decomposition of this matrix and plot the singular
values.
- 2 pts
c) Interpret the graph obtained in b) above.
- 4 pts
d) Identify the modal parameters. The identified eigenvectors can be visualized using
the Matlab template eigenvectors.m (see the section Provided files below).
- 4 pts
e) Calculate and plot the global Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC) matrix between the
different identified modes, and discuss.
- 2 pts
f) Pair the identified mode shapes with the calculated mode shapes from the FE model
using the provided file modematching.m.
- 2 pts

2. Update the FE model [16pts].

a) Identify possible updating parameters. Specify the reasoning behind your choices. For
simplicity, it is assumed that two model parameters require calibration.
- 6 pts
 b) Define an objective function using some, or all, of the identified modal data and the
corresponding data from the parameterized FE model. Optimize the calibration
parameters and plot the results.
- 4 pts
c) Interpret the results obtained in b) above.
- 4 pts
d) Compare the dynamic properties before and after calibration and present the results
in a table. Eigenfrequencies should be presented with an accuracy of at least two
decimals.
- 2 pts

3. Identify the wind and floor loads [12pts].

a) It is assumed that only a limited number of sensors are available for monitoring the
forces. State in your report at which locations on the structure the accelerations in
your data set were measured (see the section Provided files below).
- 0 pts
b) At each frequency, set up the frequency response function (FRF) matrix using the
updated model. The structure is assumed to be proportionally damped, with a
constant modal damping ratio of 2%. Plot one relevant component of the FRF matrix
as a function of frequency.
- 0 pts
c) Calculate a least-squares as well as regularized solution to the force identification
problem. The following initial guess can be used for the regularization parameter:
trace(T )
=
trace(T )
where is the matrix to be inverted during the identification procedure and is a
derivate operator specifying the type of regularization used. Present a comparison
between the applied and identified forces for both cases.
- 6 pts
d) Analyze the effect on the results of increasing or decreasing the regularization
parameter.
- 2 pts
e) Present an interpretation of the results. Include also a discussion of how (and why)
the results did (or did not) meet your expectations.
- 4 pts

For all subtasks, a thorough analysis/interpretation of the results will be rewarded. Note that
this could entail the presentation of additional outputs not specified above.

Technical reporting: 5 pts

Quality of argumentation: 3 pts

Bonus question
If you were given the opportunity to redesign the measurement test set up, what would you
advise? Clearly specify the reasoning behind your proposals.
- 4 pts
Provided files
Data

Accelerations_A.mat Measured accelerations [m/s2], corresponding time axis [s] and a

selection matrix indicating to which degree of freedom each sensor
time history corresponds. To be used for the system identification.
Accelerations_B.mat Same as above. To be used for the force identification.
Forces.mat Applied force histories [in N] and corresponding time axis [s] (for
validation purposes)

Code

FEmodel.m Finite element model

eigenvectors.m For visualizing the identified eigenvectors
modematching.m For matching the identified modes and those from the FE model
RunOptim.m; ObjFun.m; For performing the parameter optimization (model updating)
FE_fun.m