Input Estimation of a Full-Scale Concrete Frame Structure with Experimental Measurements

This paper studies input estimation of a full-scale concrete frame structure, which is modeled with over a thousand degrees-of-freedom (DOFs). With acceleration response measured from dynamic testing, the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the concrete frame are first identified. The experimentally identified modal properties are compared with those obtained from a finite element (FE) model using nominal material properties. The FE model is then used to construct statespace system matrices for input estimation. With only acceleration measurements, an unbiased minimum-variance estimator combined with an online drift filter is used to estimate the dynamic input generated by a shaker. The estimation results show acceptable performance of the proposed algorithms for application on the full-scale two-story two-bay concrete frame with both simulated and experimental measurements. The effect of sensor locations on input estimation performance is also discussed.