Wind and traffic-induced variation of dynamic characteristics of a cable-stayed bridge – benchmark study

A benchmark problem for modal identification of a cable-stayed bridge was proposed by a research team at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. By taking an instrumented cable-stayed bridge as a test bed, nineteen sets of vibration records with known/unknown excitations were provided to invited researchers. In this paper, the vibration responses of the bridge under a series of excitation conditions are examined to estimate the wind and traffic-induced variations of its dynamic characteristics. Firstly, two output-only experimental modal identification methods are selected. Secondly, the bridge and its monitoring system are described and the nineteen sets of vibration records are analyzed in time-domain and frequency-domain. Excitations sources of blind datasets are predicted based on the analysis of excitation conditions of known datasets. Thirdly, modal parameters are extracted by using the two selected output-only modal identification methods. The identified modal parameters are examined with respect to at least two different conditions such as traffic- and typhoon-induced loadings. Finally, the typhoon-induced effects on dynamic characteristics of the bridge are estimated by analyzing the relationship between the wind velocity and the modal parameters.