Nonlinear Modelling and Identification of a Small-Scale Bridge

The dynamic modelling and identification of a small-scale bridge is addressed in this paper. Two finite element models with linear elastic stiffness and different damping modelling has been tried. They correspond to a linear viscous damping and a nonlinear elasto-slip one. Both models were fitted to the available experimental data by a novel adaptive sampling technique that was repeated several times. In all the runs the technique yielded consistent results, which confirms its robustness. The elasto-slip model gave excellent fitting to the experimental data, while the results of the linear viscous one were poor.