Output-only modal identification based on hierarchical Hough transform

Sparse component analysis (SCA) has been introduced to the output-only modal identification for several years. This paper proposes a new method based on hierarchical Hough transform to extract the modal parameters of mechanical structures. First, the measured system responses are transformed to Time-frequency (TF) domain using Short time Fourier transform (STFT) to get a sparse representation. Then, Hough transform is applied to the TF coefficients hierarchically to identify the hyperplanes and the mixing matrix is calculated. Finally, the modal responses are recovered by using l ₁ -optimization and inverse STFT. From the recovered modal responses, natural frequencies and damping ratios are extracted. Numerical simulation of a 4 Degree-of-freedom (DOF) spring-mass system verifies the validity of the method. Free vibration of a steel cantilever beam is captured by a high-speed camera and then analyzed by the proposed method. The comparison of the estimated natural frequencies and damping ratios illustrates the good performance of the proposed algorithm.