Optimal Sensor Placement to Improve the Virtual Sensing Precision

Virtual Sensing (VS) in experimental structural dynamics is a set of methods for estimating the full-field dynamic response of the object of interest. VS is based on combining the numerical model of the object with the vibration measurements taken at a few points by physical sensors. VS is particularly advantageous in long-term vibration monitoring scenarios, where it can estimate the fatigue of monitored objects, predict their remaining lifetime, and optimize operating modes. However, to be economically feasible, VS must employ a minimum number of sensors placed in the optimal locations, and these locations can be efficiently found by optimal sensor placement (OSP) algorithms. This study focuses on modal expansion decomposition VS and aims to demonstrate that OSP can significantly improve the results of VS in the presence of measurement and instrumentation errors.