Fusion of GNSS and speedometer based on VMD and its application in bridge deformation monitoring

Abstract

Real-time dynamic displacement and spectral response on the midspan of Jiangyin Bridge were calculated using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and a speedometer for the purpose of understanding the dynamic behavior and the temporal evolution of the bridge structure. Considering that the GNSS measurement noise is large and the velocity/acceleration sensors cannot measure the low-frequency displacement, the Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) algorithm was used to extract the low-frequency displacement of GNSS. Then, the low-frequency displacement extracted from the GNSS time series and the high‐frequency vibration calculated by speedometer were combined in this paper in order to obtain the high precision three‐dimensional dynamic displacement of the bridge in real time. Simulation experiment and measured data show that the VMD algorithm could effectively resist the modal aliasing caused by noise and discontinuous signals compared with the commonly used Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) algorithm, which is guaranteed to get high‐precision fusion data. Finally, the fused displacement results can identify high‐frequency vibrations and low-frequency displacements of a mm level, which can be used to calculate the spectral characteristics of the bridge and provide reference to evaluate the dynamic and static loads, and the health status of the bridge in the full frequency domain and the full time domain.