Finite element model updating for large span spatial steel structure considering uncertainties

In order to establish the baseline finite element model for structural health monitoring, a new method of model updating was proposed after analyzing the uncertainties of measured data and the error of finite element model. In the new method, the finite element model was replaced by the multi-output support vector regression machine (MSVR). The interval variables of the measured frequency were sampled by Latin hypercube sampling method. The samples of frequency were regarded as the inputs of the trained MSVR. The outputs of MSVR were the target values of design parameters. The steel structure of National Aquatic Center for Beijing Olympic Games was introduced as a case for finite element model updating. The results show that the proposed method can avoid solving the problem of complicated calculation. Both the estimated values and associated uncertainties of the structure parameters can be obtained by the method. The static and dynamic characteristics of the updated finite element model are in good agreement with the measured data.