TIME–FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF A SUSPENSION BRIDGE BASED ON GPS

Abstract This paper describes the results obtained from full-scale measurements of Humen bridge, which is the second longest suspension bridge in China. A real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) has been developed and installed on the Humen bridge for on-line monitoring of bridge deck movements. The field wind-induced vibration data were measured by this monitoring system. Three system identification techniques are then adopted in the modal analysis of the wind-induced vibration response: the time–frequency Wigner distribution (WD) technique, the frequency-domain fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique and the time-domain auto-regressive moving average vector (ARMAV) technique. The WD technique can recognize close modal coupling and non-stationary response. The FFT technique can on site verify the quality of the measurements, but its frequency resolution is low and damping estimates are unreliable. The ARMAV method allows for gaining high-frequency resolution. However, it is strictly related to the stationary hypothesis. It is a general conclusion that we can improve the quality of the analysis and get more precise characteristics of the signal by these three methods. In addition, the WD combined with ARMAV seems to be the best case in quantitative analysis of fast-changing vibration signals.

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