Frequency analysis of GPS data for structural health monitoring observations

In this study, low- and high-frequency structure behaviors were identified and a systematic analysis procedure was proposed using noisy GPS data from a 165-m-high tower in Istanbul, Turkey. The raw GPS data contained long- and short-periodic position changes and noisy signals at different frequencies. To extract the significant results from this complex dataset, the general structure and components of the GPS signal were modeled and analyzed in the time and frequency domains. Uncontrolled jumps and deviations involving the signal in the time domain were pre-filtered. Then, the signal was converted to the frequency domain after applying low- and high-pass filters, and the frequency and periodic component values were calculated. The spectrum of the tower motion obtained from the filtered GPS data had dominant peaks at a low frequency of 1.15572x10-4 Hz and a high frequency of 0.16624 Hz, consistent with two equivalent GPS datasets. Then, the signal was reconstructed using inverse Fourier transform with the dominant low frequency values to obtain filtered and interpretable clean signals. With the proposed sequence, processing of noisy data collected from the GPS receivers mounted very close to the structure is effective in revealing the basic behaviors and features of buildings.