Advanced Adaptive Signal Decomposition Techniques for Drive-By Bridge Modal Identification

Extraction of the bridge response components from the passing vehicle is challenging for drive-by bridge health monitoring when the test vehicle is instrumented as a mobile sensor. Two novel adaptive signal decomposition techniques, the singular spectrum decomposition (SSD) and successive variational mode decomposition (SVMD), are introduced to analyze the vehicle responses. Their performance regarding the vehicle response decomposition for bridge modal identification is compared with each other considering a particular type of road surface roughness. The methods can also identify the characteristics of the road surface roughness as well as bridge displacement response at the vehicle-bridge contact-point (CP) from relevant mono-components, respectively. The findings confirm the feasibility of the adaptive methods for the drive-by bridge modal identification.