Placement of sensors in operational modal analysis for truss bridges

A modal approach is considered for sensor placement evaluation in operational modal analysis (OMA) where modal participation at individual degree of freedom (DOF) is evaluated separately for the target modes and subsequently locations are identified using these participation profiles. Modal contribution in output energy (MCOE) is proposed as modal measure to evaluate modal participation and has been applied in this modal approach framework for sensor placement evaluation. MCOE is evaluated using observability grammian for any types of response measurement (displacement, velocity or acceleration), while a system is released from any initial condition. Further, existing modal measures e.g. modal Hankel singular value (MHSV) and system norms (H2, H∞ and Hankel) are explained in perspective of OMA. To understand the efficiency of this proposed technique, MCOE is compared in terms of modal participation with existing modal measures as well as with other techniques like effective independence (EI) and modal kinetic energy (MKE). Analytical similarity is found for participation of a mode with EI method. Further, an existing large truss bridge structure is considered for comparative study based on modal participation of individual target modes along each DOF with acceleration measurement. In this comparison, MCOE technique is found to be in very good agreement with EI method as expected, while good agreement is observed with MHSV as well as norms and reasonable agreement with MKE method. Further, the adopted modal approach uses a flexible and insightful methodology for sensor location evaluation for multiple target modes.

► Used some modal measures which represent the presence of a mode along output DOF.
► A modal measure is proposed based on modal contribution to output energy.
► Formulations are carried out considering all types of response measurement.
► Proposed and other modal measures agree with known ideal sensor locations of beam.
► All measures show interestingly similar modal presence for real life large bridge.