A new approach of ensemble learning in fully automated identification of structural modal parameters of concrete gravity dams: A case study of the Koyna dam

Abstract

This study proposes a new automatic modal identification algorithm that identifies the system's modal parameters based on output-only data. The identification process is based on a stochastic subspace algorithm. Stochastic subspace algorithms only need the model degree to identify the modal parameters of the system. A model degree is an appropriate degree of the state-space model and it is estimated by using the Singular Value Criterion. Several clustering algorithms with different approaches have been used. The most powerful data fusion algorithm, which is called Dempster-Schaffer Theory is applied for integrating the results of the algorithms and preventing divergence of results. Furthermore, it focused on measuring the uncertainty of the identified modal parameters. In the proposed modal identification algorithm, only one data set is used for identification. In this situation, the variety of data is small and limited, and statistical resampling methods seem to be a good option. Establishing the above cycle enables the identification algorithm to identify modal parameters and quantify their uncertainty based only on a data set. This algorithm uses many fields, such as data collection, signal processing techniques, model reduction, feature extraction, clustering and data fusion. The Koyna gravity dam is selected as a case study to evaluate the performance of the developed algorithm. In the first step, a comparative study is carried out to verify the developed finite element model of the Koyna dam. Afterwards, the dam is excited by the Koyna earthquake, and dynamic responses of the dam are collected from the minimum number of points required for system identification. It is noteworthy the number of modes that are identified in this work is equal to 4 vibration modes. The maximum difference between the natural frequencies identified by the present algorithm and the finite element model does not exceed 4.33%. Also, the average difference is less than two percent, which indicates the high accuracy of the system identification algorithm. Also, all the vibration modes in the desired frequency range have been correctly identified. The results indicate that modal parameters with remarkable precision have been extracted by the modified algorithm.