Output-Only Subspace-Based Structural Identification: From Theory to Industrial Testing Practice1

We address the problem of structural model identification during normal operating conditions and thus with uncontrolled, unmeasured, and nonstationary excitation. We advocate the use of output-only and covariance-driven subspace-based stochastic identification methods. We explain how to handle nonsimultaneously measured data from multiple sensor setups, and how robustness with respect to nonstationary excitation can be achieved. Experimental results obtained for three real application examples are shown.