Finite element model updating of a suspension bridge using ANSYS software

The need to know the behaviour of as-built bridges is becoming increasingly important. Bridges are structures with large dimensions, long service lives and, with advances in technology, they continue to become more complex. This has generated the need to understand their behaviour more precisely. Model updating is a tool able to improve the representation of bridges. A Finite Element (FE) model is updated to achieve better correlation with experimentally observed dynamic properties. This paper is concerned with updating an FE model of the Clifton Suspension Bridge (CSB), UK. The objective is to establish an updating process for bridges using the tools available in the commercial FE software ANSYS. After updating, the model of the CSB yielded modal parameters which were in significantly closer agreement with the experimental values, while preserving their physical meaning. Nomenclature Df Difference between the experimental and FE natural frequencies; f Objective function; FER Frequency error; MACModal Assurance Criterion; x Design variable (updating parameter); X i φ ~ FE mode shape vector; X i φ Experimental mode shape vector; ai λ FE eigenvalue of mode that has been