Making Vibration Data Processing an Easy Task: Industrial Software Solutions for OMA and SHM

The primary role of Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) and modal based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for structural assessment of civil structures is nowadays well established and acknowledged by relevant national as well as international codes and guidelines. The increasing demand for more and more challenging applications requires advanced software tools to make data processing effective and fast. This is particularly relevant in SHM applications requiring continuous and fully automated OMA to extract the damage sensitive features. The present paper discusses some challenging applications of OMA and modal based SHM, remarking how industrial software solutions can effectively support data processing and interpretation as well as provide useful information to the technicians having in charge structural management and maintenance. In particular, attention is focused on OMA testing of a large highway bridge, and modal based SHM in the presence of significant environmental influence on monitoring results.