Robust Adaptive Neural Estimation of Restoring Forces in Nonlinear Structures

The availability of methods for on-line estimation and identification of structures is crucial for the monitoring and active control of time-varying nonlinear structural systems. Adaptive estimation approaches that have recently appeared in the literature for on-line estimation and identification of hysteretic systems under arbitrary dynamic environments are in general model based. In these approaches, it is assumed that the unknown restoring forces are modeled by nonlinear differential equations (which can represent general nonlinear characteristics, including hysteretic phenomena). The adaptive methods estimate the parameters of the nonlinear differential equations on line. Adaptation of the parameters is done by comparing the prediction of the assumed model to the response measurement, and using the prediction error to change the system parameters. In this paper, a new methodology is presented which is not model based. The new approach solves the problem of estimating/identifying the restoring forces without assuming any model of the restoring forces dynamics, and without postulating any structure on the form of the underlying nonlinear dynamics. The new approach uses the Volterra/Wiener neural networks (VWNN) which are capable of learning input/output nonlinear dynamics, in combination with adaptive filtering and estimation techniques. Simulations and experimental results from a steel structure and from a reinforced-concrete structure illustrate the power and efficiency of the proposed method.