Dynamic inversion method for the material parameters of a high arch dam and its foundation

The overall mechanical behavior of the structure of an arch dam is comprehensively reflected by the vibration modal information included in measured vibration response. Hence, the results obtained from inverting material parameters based on measured vibration data are often superior to those based on static monitoring data. In this study, a dynamic inversion method for the material parameters of a high arch dam and its foundation is proposed on the basis of the measured vibration response. First, an arch dam prototype test is conducted to obtain the measured dynamic displacement response as input. Then, a stochastic subspace identification method based on singular entropy is formulated to determine the modal parameters. Second, a dynamic elastic modulus (DEM) with a great influence on the modal parameters is selected as the material parameter to be inverted. Then, a response surface model (RSM), which reflects the nonlinear relationship between the material and modal parameters of each zone, is constructed. Latin hypercube sampling is used to generate the sample library of the DEM. The RSM is fitted by modal parameters calculated on the basis of the arch dam finite element model (FEM) and is applied to replace the FEM. Finally, the optimization mathematical model of the inversion of the DEM is established. Then, the objective function is optimized through a genetic algorithm, and the optimal combination of the DEM in each zone is inverted. The modal parameters of the arch dam calculated by inversion results are consistent with those measured by variation law and values. Therefore, the inversion results are reasonable and reliable. This method provides a new idea for determining the material parameters of a high arch dam and its foundation during the operation period. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.