Study on variability of modal parameters of concrete structure: humidity and moisture effect

The complex external environment for civil engineering structures results in the structural vibration properties varying with external conditions, such as humidity and temperature. For the vibration-based structural health monitoring techniques, for example damage identification, modal updating etc., above characteristics will result in the vibration-based techniques invalid. Other researchers have reported that modal frequencies varied significantly due to temperature change, but the humidity affect structural vibration properties in another manner. This paper discusses the variation of frequencies and mode shapes with respect to humidity and temperature changes for concrete structures, for which the changing of moisture will affect the density of materials, and the changing of temperature will affect the stiffness of structures. This paper models these two factors with finite element model approach based on the theoretical analysis, and numerical results obtained on the FE model of a concrete bridge deck are reported.