Identification of non-stationary dynamical systems using multivariate ARMA models

This paper is concerned by the modal identification of time-varying mechanical systems. Based on previous works about autoregressive moving average models in vector form (ARMAV) for the modal identification of linear time invariant systems, and time-varying autoregressive moving average models (TV-ARMA) for the identification of nonstationary systems, a time-varying ARMAV (TV-ARMAV) model is presented for the multivariate identification of time-varying systems. It results in the identification of not only the time-varying poles of the system but also of its respective time-varying mode shapes. The method is applied on a time-varying structure composed of a beam on which a mass is moving.