Damping identification in multi-degree-of-freedom systems using the continuous wavelet transform

Abstract

The identification of damping in multi-degree-of-freedom vibration systems is a well-known problem and appears to be of crucial interest. Compared to an estimation of the stiffness and mass, the damping coefficient or, alternatively, damping ratio is the most difficult quantity to determine. In this paper, the continuous wavelet transform based on the Morlet-wavelet function is used to identify the modal damping ratios of multi-degree-of-freedom vibration systems. A new wavelet-based method for the damping identification from measured free responses is presented. The proposed method was also tested by experiments on a steel beam.