System identification of a cable-stayed bridge using vibration responses measured by a wireless sensor network

In this paper, system identification of a cable-stayed bridge in Korea, the Hwamyung Bridge, is performed using vibration responses measured by a wireless sensor system. First, an acceleration based-wireless sensor system is employed for the structural health monitoring of the bridge, and wireless sensor nodes are deployed on a deck, a pylon and several selected cables. Second, modal parameters of the bridge are obtained both from measured vibration responses and finite element (FE) analysis. Frequency domain decomposition and stochastic subspace identification methods are used to obtain the modal parameters from the measured vibration responses. The FE model of the bridge is established using commercial FE software package. Third, structural properties of the bridge are updated using a modal sensitivity-based method. The updating work improves the accuracy of the FE model so that structural behaviors of the bridge can be represented better using the updated FE model. Finally, cable forces of the selected cables are also identified and compared with both design and lift-off test values.