Dynamic measurement for extended frequencies from model and full-size structural components

Vibration based structural assessment and damage detection methods have been researched widely for potential applications in civil engineering structures such as buildings and bridges. However, successful field implementation has been scarce, and studies are often limited to some sort of dynamic survey of the structures and stop short of further structural identification in terms of local anomalies. Among other practical issues influencing the measurement resolution and accuracy in real life structures, the increased presence of the so-called multiplicative noises and damping effects when it comes to the vibration measurements of stiff structures is deemed to be an important factor, in addition to various inherent nonlinearities. This paper presents an exploratory experimental study concerning the measurement of frequency data from more realistic structural components using a full-size damaged reinforced concrete beam in comparison with simple laboratory models. In addition to the natural frequencies, the extraction of the artificial boundary condition (ABC) frequencies from the test RC beam is also examined and discussed.