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We have shown experimentally that the operable bandwidth of a fibre Bragg grating (FBG) based accelerometer can be extended significantly, without compromising its sensitivity, using a post-signal processing technique which involves frequency domain weighting. It has been demonstrated that using the above technique acceleration can be correctly interpreted even when the operating frequency encroaches on the region where the frequency response of the sensor is non-uniform. Two different excitation signals, which we often encounter in structural health monitoring applications, e.g. (i) a signal composed of multi-frequency components and (ii) a sinusoidal excitation with a frequency sweep, have been considered in our experiment. The results obtained have been compared with a piezo accelerometer.

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A methodology has been proposed to estimate non-proportional viscous damping matrix of beams from measured complex eigendata using finite element model updating technique. Representation of damping through a proportional damping matrix ignoring the complexity of eigenvectors may not be appropriate when external damping devices are employed. The current literature of determination of non-proportional damping matrix demands measurement of a large number of complex modes which is extremely difficult in practice. A gradient based finite element model updating algorithm implementing inverse eigensensitivity method has been presented through a series of numerically simulated cantilever beams. The method can accurately predict the non-proportional damping matrix even if the measured eigenvectors are polluted with random noise. The novelty of the current method is that it can sustain a high level of modal and coordinate sparsity in measurement. The method assumes prior determination or updating of the mass and stiffness matrices.

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The dynamic stability behaviour of a tapered beam has been studied using a finite element analysis. The instability zones of the parametric stability diagram have been discussed for the entire ranges of static and dynamic load factors. It has been observed that at high values of static load and beyond a particular value of the dynamic load factor, the periodic solution of the Mathieu equation does not exist in the principal region. This leads to unstable behaviour due to large displacement of the beam due to increasing values of static and dynamic load factors.

Investigations have been carried out both numerically and experimentally to settle with a practically feasible set of proportional viscous damping parameters for the accurate prediction of responses of fibre reinforced plastic beams over a chosen frequency range of interest. The methodology needs accurate experimental modal testing, an adequately converged finite element model, a rational basis for correct correlations between these two models, and finally, updating of the finite element model by estimating a pair of global viscous damping coefficients using a gradient-based inverse sensitivity algorithm. The present approach emphasises that the successful estimate of the damping matrix is related to a-priori estimation of material properties, as well. The responses are somewhat accurately predicted using these updated damping parameters over a large frequency range. In the case of plates, determination of in-plane stiffness parameters becomes easier, whereas for beam specimens, transverse material properties play a comparatively greater role and need to be determined. Moreover, for damping matrix parameter estimation, frequency response functions need to be used instead of frequencies and mode shapes. The proposed method of damping matrix identification is able to reproduce frequency response functions accurately even outside the frequency ranges used for identification.