Implementation of Noise Reduction Methodology to Modal Distribution Method

Abstract

Vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems use field measurements of operational signals, which are distorted by noise from many sources. Reducing this noise allows a more accurate assessment of the original “clean” signal and improves analysis results. The implementation of a noise reduction methodology for the Modal Distribution Method (MDM) is reported here. The spectral subtraction method is a popular broadband noise reduction technique used in speech signal processing. Its basic principle is to subtract the magnitude of the noise from the total noisy signal in the frequency domain. The underlying assumption of the method is that noise is additive and uncorrelated with the signal. In speech signal processing, noise can be measured when there is no signal. In the MDM, however, the magnitude of the noise profile can be estimated only from the magnitude of the Power Spectral Density (PSD) at higher frequencies than the frequency range of the true signal associated with structural vibrations under the additional assumption of white noise. The implementation of the spectral subtraction method to MDM may decrease the energy of the individual mode. In this work, a modification of the spectral subtraction method is introduced that enables the conservation of the energies of individual modes. The main difference is that any (negative) bars with a height below zero after subtraction are set to the absolute value of their height. Both noise reduction methods are implemented in the MDM, and an application example is presented that demonstrates its effectiveness when used with a signal corrupted by noise.