Modal parameter identification of Tsing Ma suspension bridge under Typhoon Victor: EMD-HT method

This paper aims to identify the natural frequencies and modal damping ratios of the Tsing Ma suspension bridge during Typhoon Victor using the newly emerged empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method in conjunction with the Hilbert-transform (HT) technique. Stationary tests on the acceleration responses of the bridge recorded at different locations and in different directions during Typhoon Victor are first carried out to classify the recorded response data. Natural frequencies and modal damping ratios identified by the EMD-HT method are then compared with those obtained by the traditional fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based method. The modal parameters identified by the EMD-HT method from the bridge responses recorded at different locations are compared with each other to check their consistency. Furthermore, the variations of natural frequency and total modal damping ratio with vibration amplitude and mean wind speed are examined. The results demonstrated that the EMD-HT method is applicable to modal parameter identification of large civil structures under typhoons. The EMD-HT method and the FFT-based method produced almost the same natural frequencies but the FFT-based method gave higher modal damping ratios than the EMD-HT method in general.