structural health monitoring-oriented finite-element model for a large transmission tower

To obtain accurate finite-element (fe) models for structural health monitoring (shm), effective modeling techniques are essential. this paper presents the process for establishing a 131-m large transmission tower’s shm-oriented fe model. incorporated procedures are appropriate modeling, manual tuning, model updating, and model validation. through these works, a detailed realistic model that can reproduce all the experimental dynamic characteristics is obtained, and important conclusions about establishing shm-oriented fe models for large steel pylon structures can be drawn accordingly: (1) it is necessary to model all the bar members using beam or truss elements of equivalent cross sections for local structural behavior exploration; (2) some components (e.g., ladders, steel plates, and rivets) are no influence on the structural overall stiffness, but their contributions to mass cannot be ignored in modeling; (3) the response surface (rs)-based fe model updating method is effective for complicated pylon models; (4) manual tunings are needed to ensure the quality of model updating.