Mode shapes identification under harmonic excitation using mobile sensors

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for the identification of high spatial density mode shapes of a dynamical system under harmonic excitation that use information from a mobile sensor. The methodology is verified numerically and experimentally with uniform simply supported beams under sinusoidal excitation. High correlation is found between the theoretical and the numerically identified mode shapes in the simulations. High correlation is also obtained between the operational mode shape identified using a traditional modal identification approach and the one using the proposed methodology during the experimental validation. The methodology minimizes errors in the identification process due to the influence of the non-resonant modes and it is robust to uncertainties in the initial identification of the natural frequencies.