Modal identification of long-span Runyang Bridge using ambient responses recorded by SHMS

Runyang Bridge is a newly built cable-supported bridge that crosses the Yangtze River in China. The bridge is composed of one suspension bridge and one cable-stayed bridge. During the construction of the bridge, a structural health monitoring system (SHMS) was installed, which was designed by the Southeast University. Since the bridge was open to traffic, quantities of structural ambient responses have been recorded by the SHMS. And, it’s really important to extract structrural information from these records for health monitoring. This paper presents the study on modal identification of the bridge. The dynamic properites including modal frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios are extracted from the ambient responses. Two identification methods are employed including the enhanced frequency domain decomposition and the stochastic subspace identification. The identified modal parameters from the two methods are compared. Results show that modal frequencies and mode shapes from the two methods are almost the same while the damping ratios are different.