Operational modal identification in the presence of harmonic excitation

Abstract The dynamic behavior of structures can be studied by the identification of their modal parameters. Classical modal analysis methods are based on the relation between the forces applied to structures (inputs) and their vibration responses (outputs). In real operational conditions it is difficult, or even impossible, to measure the excitation. For this reason, operational modal analysis approaches which consider only output data are proposed. However, most of these output-only techniques are proposed under the assumption of white noise excitation. If additional components, like harmonics for instance, are present in the exciting force, they will not be separated from the natural frequencies. Consequently, this assumption is no longer valid. In this context, an operational modal identification technique is proposed in order to only identify real poles and eliminate spurious ones. It is a method based on transmissibility functions. The objective of the proposed paper is to identify modal parameters in operational conditions in the presence of harmonic excitations. Identification is performed using a method based on transmissibility measurements and then with the classical stochastic subspace identification method, which is based on white noise excitation. These two methods are first applied to numerical examples and then to a laboratory test. Results validate the novel ability of the method based on transmissibility measurements to eliminate harmonics, contrary to the stochastic subspace identification approach.