Dynamic displacement estimation and modal analysis of long-span bridges integrating multi-GNSS and acceleration measurements

Compared with acceleration-based modal analysis, displacement can provide a more reliable and robust identification result for output-only modal analysis of long-span bridges. However, the estimated displacements from acceleration records are frequently unavailable due to unrealistic drifts. Aiming at obtaining more accurate and stable results for determining the modal parameters, this study develops a multi-rate weighted data fusion approach for estimating displacement responses in dynamic monitoring of structures based on global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and acceleration measurements. The approach initially derives the local estimations from displacement and acceleration sensors via a Kalman filter algorithm with colored measurement noise, and later uses a weighted fusion criterion of scalar linear minimum variance to fuse the results of local estimations. Then, structural modal pamameters are identified by employing data-driven stochastic subspace identification (SSI) algorithm. The proposed approach is validated in a four degree-of-freedom numerical model and then applied to a long-span bridge in engineering practice. The results illustrate that the proposed approach can reduce the error of GNSS-obtained displacement and expand recognizable frequency range by introducing dynamic displacement component from acceleration measurement.