The adjustment of structural parameters using a minimum variance estimator

Abstract This paper presents a method of adjusting the parameters of the mathematical model of a mechanical structure using test data. The algorithm is based on a minimum variance estimator for the unknown mass and stiffnes parameters, using natural frequency and mode shape information. Previous authors using this method have assumed the estimated parameters and measurements to be independent. This paper makes no such assumption. The algorithm produced converges faster to more correct result than the previous statistical algorithms.