Structural source identification using a generalized Tikhonov regularization

This paper addresses the problem of identifying mechanical exciting forces from vibration measurements. The proposed approach is based on a generalized Tikhonov regularization that allows taking into account prior information on the measurement noise as well as on the main characteristics of sources to identify like its sparsity or regularity. To solve such a regularization problem efficiently, a Generalized Iteratively Reweighted Least-Squares (GIRLS) algorithm is introduced. Proposed numerical and experimental validations reveal the crucial role of prior information in the quality of the source identification and the performance of the GIRLS algorithm. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.