The selling point of this paper

is the improved stochastic subspace algorithm involving a Monte

Carlo-based stabilization diagram. This proposed algorithm has good
performance in discriminating the physical and spurious modes.

Modal Identification of Civil Structures via

Stochastic Subspace Algorithm with Monte
Carlo–Based Stabilization Diagram
Kang Zhou 1; Qiu-Sheng Li, M.ASCE 2; and Xu-Liang Han 3
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Abstract: The stochastic subspace algorithm is one of the most widely used structural identification techniques, which is generally involved
with the stabilization diagram for estimating modal parameters. However, the conventional stabilization diagram has an inherent problem:
some spurious modes may be identified as stable results, resulting in adverse effects on structural modal identification. To address this critical
issue, this paper proposes an improved stochastic subspace algorithm involving a Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram. Through a
numerical simulation study, the good performance of the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram for discriminating the poles denoting
the physical modes from those representing spurious modes is demonstrated. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed method
can estimate structural modal parameters with high accuracy and robustness. Moreover, the proposed method is applied to field measurements
on a 600-m-high skyscraper during Super Typhoon Mangkhut, and the results verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed
method to field measurements. This paper aims to provide an effective tool for accurate estimation of modal parameters of civil structures.
DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0003353. © 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Stochastic subspace identification; Modal identification; Modal parameters; Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram;
Civil structures; High-rise building.

Introduction
Modal parameters of civil structures (i.e., natural frequencies,
damping ratios, and mode shapes) are essential for determining
their structural dynamic responses. Moreover, these key parameters
can provide prerequisite information for structural health monitor-
ing (Li et al. 2018), finite-element model (FEM) updating
(Reynders et al. 2010), damage detection (Wahab and De Roeck
1999; Xia et al. 2002), and vibration control (Zhou and Li
2020). Therefore, accurate estimate of structural modal parameters
is essential.
The modal parameter identification methods can be classified
into three main categories: time domain [e.g., random decrement
technique (RDT) (Cole 1973), eigensystem realization algorithm
(Juang and Pappa 1986), and stochastic subspace identification
(SSI) method (Van Overschee and De Moor 1993)], frequency do-
main [e.g., frequency domain decomposition method (Brincker
et al. 2001), Bayesian spectral density approach (Katafygiotis
1 on the conventional stabilization diagram, Fan et al. (2019) pro-
Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering,
City Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Email: kangzhou3-c@
my.cityu.edu.hk
2
Chair Professor, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering,
City Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong; Director, Architecture
and Civil Engineering Research Center, City Univ. of Hong Kong
Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen 518057, China (corresponding
author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4822-2863. Email: bcqsli@
cityu.edu.hk
3
Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City
Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Email: xlhan5-c@my
.cityu.edu.hk
Note. This manuscript was submitted on June 8, 2021; approved on
February 1, 2022; published online on April 8, 2022. Discussion period
open until September 8, 2022; separate discussions must be submitted
for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Structural En-
gineering, © ASCE, ISSN 0733-9445.
and Yuen 2001)], and time-frequency domain [e.g., wavelet trans-
form based method (Nagarajaiah and Basu 2009), Hilbert-Huang
transform based technique (Yang et al. 2003)]. Among these ap-
proaches, the SSI is attracting more attention due to its prominent
advantages, for example, solid mathematical grounds, good robust-
ness, and ability to identify multiple modes simultaneously (He
et al. 2021; Qin et al. 2016). Generally, the SSI approach is applied
with the stabilization diagram for conducting structural modal iden-
tification. However, as reported in previous studies (e.g., Faravelli
et al. 2011; Li et al. 2019; Liu et al. 2013; Wu et al. 2019), the
conventional stabilization diagram has an inherent problem: some
spurious modes may be identified as stable results. This inevitably
introduces errors in further analysis of the conventional stabiliza-
tion diagram and thereby has adverse effects on the accuracy of
modal identification results. To mitigate the adverse effects, several
efforts have been made. For instance, Magalhaes et al. (2009) de-
veloped an improved hierarchical clustering algorithm for the con-
ventional stabilization diagram to extract the stable poles, in which
a cutoff distance parameter needs to be carefully assigned. Based
posed an automated interpretation method, which is a relatively
complex approach that combines a hard validation criteria removal
process, an improved statistics-based clustering procedure, and a
developed cluster merging procedure. Wu et al. (2019) proposed
a doubly folded stabilization diagram and Zhang et al. (2012) de-
veloped a model similar index-based stabilization diagram, while
the applications of these two stabilization diagrams in field mea-
surements indicated that several spurious poles are still misidenti-
fied as stable results. The literature review reveals that the inherent
problem of the conventional stabilization diagram is not well ad-
dressed. To this end, this paper proposes a Monte Carlo–based sta-
bilization diagram that can effectively discriminate the physical
modes from the spurious ones. Based on this novel diagram, an
improved stochastic subspace algorithm is established for the
accurate modal parameter identification. The effectiveness and

© ASCE 04022066-1 J. Struct. Eng.

J. Struct. Eng., 2022, 148(6): 04022066

 accuracy of the proposed algorithm are verified and demonstrated
by numerical simulation study and field measurements.
The structure of the rest of this paper is as follows: first, the
methodology of the improved stochastic subspace algorithm is in-
troduced; then, effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algo-
rithm by a numerical study on a six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF)
model is validated; the next section verifies the applicability and
effectiveness of the proposed algorithm to field measurements
on a 600-m-high skyscraper during Super Typhoon Mangkhut,
which is followed by the conclusions.
Methodology
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in which xt and yt denote the state and output vectors at time instant
t, respectively; A and C are the state and output matrixes, respec-
tively; and wt and vt are vectors that stand for the system noise and
measurement noise, respectively. The first step of the SSI-COV
method is the calculation of the output covariance Ri , which is de-
fined as follows (Magalhaes et al. 2009)
X
1 N−i−1
Ri ¼ y · yT ð2Þ
N t¼0 tþi t
in which N represents the number of points of time series; i denotes
the time lag parameter; and superscript T is the transpose of a ma-

trix. Then Ri is organized in a Toeplitz matrix (also known as

Generally, the SSI method can be classified into two categories: diagonal-constant matrix) T 1ji (Magalhaes et al. 2009)
the data-driven SSI (SSI-DATA) that directly starts from raw
0 1
data series and the covariance-driven SSI (SSI-COV) that is based Ri Ri−1 ··· R1
on the covariance matrices of raw data series. Although the B C
B Riþ1 Ri ··· R2 C
modal parameters estimated by these two approaches have similar B C
T 1ji ¼B
B ..
C ð3Þ
accuracy (Peeters and De Roeck 2001), the SSI-COV method
B . ... ..
. ... C
C
is much faster and requires less memory than the SSI-DATA @ A
because time series are compressed in covariance matrices R2i−1 R2i−2 ··· Ri
(Magalhaes et al. 2009). Because the Monte Carlo simulation
is involved in the proposed method, the faster SSI-COV is
adopted in this paper to improve computational efficiency. In this The Toeplitz matrix T 1ji has dimensions il × il, where l is the
section, the theoretical derivation of the SSI-COV method will be number of measurement outputs. According to the properties of
first introduced, and the proposed algorithm will be described stochastic systems, T 1ji can be decomposed into two matrices as
accordingly. follows (Van Overschee and De Moor 2012)
0 1
C
SSI-COV B C
B CA C
B C
The main idea of the SSI-COV method is to identify the structural T 1ji ¼ B . Cð Ai−1 G Ai−2 G · · · G Þ ¼ Oi Γi ð4Þ
modal parameters based on the stochastic state-space model. B .. C
@ A
Assuming a structure is excited by stochastic forces, the discrete- i−1
CA
time stochastic state-space model can be expressed as follows (Van
Overschee and De Moor 1993)
in which Oi and Γi are the observability matrix and controllability
xtþ1 ¼ A · xt þ wt matrix, respectively. On the other hand, by performing the singular
value decomposition (SVD), T 1ji can also be decomposed as fol-
yt ¼ C · xt þ vt ð1Þ lows (Wu et al. 2016)

" #" #
ðS1 Þ2n×2n 02n×n^ ðV T1 Þ2n×il
T 1ji ¼ USV T ¼ ½ ðU 1 Þil×2n ðU 2 Þil×n^  ¼ U 1 S1 V T1 ð5Þ
0n×2n
^ ðS2 Þn×
^ n^ ¼ 0n×
^ n^ ðV T2 Þn×il
^

in which n represents the system order in the analysis procedure Generally speaking, in order not to miss any physical modes,
and n^ ¼ il − 2n; U and V are orthogonal matrices; and S denotes the system order n should be overestimated, which may result
a quasi-diagonal matrix with positive diagonal elements arranged in in spurious modes in the estimated results. To reject these spurious
decreasing order. By solving Eqs. (4) and (5) simultaneously, the modes, the conventional stabilization diagram is commonly used,
system state matrix A and output matrix C can be readily deter- which reflects the variation of the estimated modal parameters with
mined. Next, the natural frequencies and damping ratios can be de- system order increments. For establishing conventional stabiliza-
termined by conducting eigenvalue decomposition of the state tion diagrams, the following stable criterion is commonly utilized
matrix A, and the corresponding eigenvectors multiplied by the out- (Wu et al. 2019)
put matrix C can be used to obtain the mode shape vectors (Liu f − fn
Natural frequency∶ Δf n ¼ nþ1 ≤ 1%
et al. 2013). It is worth noting that the key parameters [i.e., the time fn
lag parameter i and system order n in Eqs. (2) and (5)] need to be ξ − ξn
determined in the SSI-COV method, and their determination for Damping ratio∶ Δξ n ¼ nþ1 ≤ 5%
ξn
establishing the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram will be
subsequently discussed. Mode shape∶ 1 − MACðϕnþ1 ; ϕn Þ ≤ 1% ð6Þ

© ASCE 04022066-2 J. Struct. Eng.

J. Struct. Eng., 2022, 148(6): 04022066

 in which f, ξ, and ϕ are the natural frequency, damping ratio, and
mode shape, respectively; subscripts n means the system order; and
MAC denotes the modal assurance criterion of two vectors. It is
noted that two adjacent system orders (i.e., n and n þ 1) adopted
in the stable criterion may yield similar spurious modes, which may
be misidentified as stable results by the conventional stabilization
diagram. This may further result in adverse effects on structural
modal identification. To address this issue, an improved algorithm
involved Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram will be devel-
oped in the following section.
Improved SSI-COV Algorithm with Monte Carlo–Based
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Stabilization Diagram
In this section, an improved SSI-COV algorithm is proposed for
accurate modal identification, in which the Monte Carlo–based
stabilization diagram is adopted. Fig. 1 illustrates the flow chart
of the proposed method, which consists of three main steps. In
the first step, the value ranges of two parameters for performing
SSI-COV (i.e., time lag parameter i and system order n) are de-
termined based on the power spectral density (PSD) analysis of
structural dynamic responses. In the second step, several sets of
random integers ½i; n are generated by using the Monte Carlo sim-
ulation, and the SSI-COV is accordingly performed for estimating
the modal parameters. In the third step, a two-stage stability check
approach is used to establish the Monte Carlo–based stabilization
diagram, based on which, the k-means clustering method is used to
determine structural modal parameters. The novelty of the pro-
posed method is the consideration of the effects of both time
lag parameter i and the system order parameter n in establishing
the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram, and the usage of the
two-stage stability check approach to reject the spurious poles.
As previously mentioned, only the effect of system order parameter
n is considered in the establishment of the conventional stabiliza-
tion diagram. While as indicated by Wu et al. (2016), the effects
Fig. 1. Flowchart of the proposed method.
© ASCE 04022066-3
J. Struct. Eng., 2022, 148(6): 04022066
of the time lag parameter i should be considered because it has
significant effects on the performance of the stabilization diagram
for discriminating the poles denoting the physical modes from
those representing spurious modes. Besides, several similar spuri-
ous modes may be misidentified as stable poles in the conventional
stabilization diagram because it just compares the modal parame-
ters obtained using two adjacent system orders. In the proposed
method, a number of different sets of ½i; n can be generated by
the Monte Carlo simulation. Based on this, similar spurious
modes can only occur occasionally, while the physical modes
exist more frequently. Then, by using a two-stage stability check
approach, the spurious poles will be rejected and the physical
modes will remain for accurate estimation of structural modal
parameters.
In the following, the proposed method will be introduced in
detail following Fig. 1. First, the PSD analysis is applied to reveal
the energy distribution of structural dynamic responses in fre-
quency domain. Based on the PSD curves, the fundamental natural
frequency, f f , and the total number of structural modes, N, can be
readily identified. Then, the value ranges of the two key parameters
(i.e., the time lag parameter i and system order n) can be deter-
mined as follows. The lower limit of the time lag parameter i
can be determined by imin ¼ fs =f f (Wu et al. 2016), where fs de-
notes the sampling frequency of measurement. While for the sys-
tem order n, its lower limit, nmin , can be determined as twice the
number of identified structural modes, N, following Wu et al.
(2019). In this paper, the upper limits of the two key parameters
(i.e., imax and nmax ) are set as twice their lower limits. In this
way, the value ranges of the two key parameters can be determined
as ½imin ; imax  and ½nmin ; nmax , respectively.
Next, by performing the Monte Carlo simulation, s sets of ran-
dom integers ½i; n can be generated. The random integers i and n
are regarded to have uniform distributions over the intervals
½imin ; imax  and ½nmin ; nmax , respectively. For each set of ½i; n, a
group of structural modal parameters, i.e., Ω ¼ ½ðf1 ; ξ 1 ; ϕ1 Þ;
J. Struct. Eng.
 ðf 2 ; ξ 2 ; ϕ2 Þ; : : : ; ðf n ; ξ n ; ϕn Þ, can be estimated by utilizing the
SSI-COV. For simplicity purposes, the estimated modal parameter
(f; ξ; ϕ) is denoted by Θ hereafter. Thus, Ω ¼ ½ðf 1 ; ξ 1 ; ϕ1 Þ;
ðf 2 ; ξ 2 ; ϕ2 Þ; : : : ; ðf n ; ξ n ; ϕn Þ can be abbreviated as Ω ¼ ½Θ1 ;
Θ2 ; : : : ; Θn . Based on the s sets of ½i; n, s groups of structural
modal parameters, i.e., ½Ω1 ; Ω2 ; : : : ; Ωs , can be obtained. A value
of 60 is adopted for s in this paper based on a trade-off between
computational efficiency and accuracy.
Accordingly, a two-stage stability check approach is proposed
to discriminate the poles denoting the physical modes from those
representing spurious modes. The essence of this approach is
that, statistically, the spurious modes can only be identified occa-
sionally, while the physical modes exist more stably. The Θ11 in Ω1
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is adopted herein to demonstrate the procedure of the proposed

two-stage stability check approach. In the first-stage stability
check, the criterion shown in Eq. (7) is used

fa − fb
Natural frequency∶ Δf ¼ ≤ 1%
fa Fig. 2. Sketch of numerical model.
ξ − ξb
Damping ratio∶ Δξ ¼ a ≤ 5%
ξa
Mode shape∶ 1 − MACðϕa ; ϕb Þ ≤ 1% ð7Þ 10 units. In this way, the mass matrix M and stiffness matrix K
can be obtained as Eqs. (8) and (9), respectively

in which subscripts a and b represent two different structural 2 3

1 0 0 0 0 0
modes. By comparing the estimated modal parameters Θ in the 6 7
other s − 1 groups of Ω (i.e., ½Ω2 ; Ω3 ; : : : ; Ωs ) with Θ11 in Ω1 , 60 1 0 0 0 07
6 7
the number of Θ that satisfying the criterion in Eq. (6) can be 6 7
60 0 1 0 0 07
M¼6
60
7 ð8Þ
0 07
readily determined, which is regarded as the stable index for
Θ11 . While in the second-stage stability check, only if the stable 6 0 0 1 7
6 7
index for Θ11 is larger than 0.3 · s, Θ11 can be regarded as a stable 60 0 0 0 1 07
4 5
pole. By applying the proposed two-stage stability check approach
0 0 0 0 0 1
to the estimated modal parameters Θ in s groups of Ω, the stable
poles denoting the physical modes can be effectively discriminated
against from those representing spurious modes. Based on this
analysis, the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram can be es- 2 3
tablished accordingly, in which the modal parameter estimates in s 20 −10 0 0 0 0
groups of Ω are plotted together (x axis-natural frequency; y axis- 6 7
6 −10 20 −10 0 0 0 7
order of random integers ½i; n that belongs to [1, s]). Based on the 6 7
6 7
stable poles identified from the Monte Carlo–based stabilization 6 0 −10 20 −10 0 0 7
K¼6
6 0
7 ð9Þ
diagram, the modal parameters belonging to different modes 6 0 −10 20 −10 0 77
can be readily clustered by the k-means method (Likas et al. 6 7
6 0 0 0 −10 20 −10 7
2003). It is noted that the Silhouette method is used to atomically 4 5
determine the number of clusters for the k-means method (Lletı 0 0 0 0 −10 10
et al. 2004). Then, the mean values and standard deviations of
these clustered modal parameters can be accordingly obtained. The
mean values can be regarded as the optimal estimated structural The damping matrix C is determined by C ¼ 0.01M þ 0.003K.
modal parameters and the corresponding standard deviations These matrixes can be adopted to model a structure that has
can be used to define the corresponding confidence intervals. In six modes (i.e., mode-1: f1 ¼ 0.121 Hz, ξ 1 ¼ 0.770%; mode-2:
the next section, the procedure of the proposed improved SSI- f2 ¼ 0.357 Hz, ξ 2 ¼ 0.559%; mode-3: f3 ¼ 0.572 Hz, ξ 3 ¼
COV algorithm will be demonstrated through a numerical example 0.678%; mode-4: f4 ¼ 0.753 Hz, ξ 4 ¼ 0.816%; mode-5:
of a 6DOF model. f5 ¼ 0.891 Hz, ξ 5 ¼ 0.929%; mode-6: f6 ¼ 0.977 Hz, ξ 6 ¼
1.003%). As shown in Fig. 1, a zero-mean white noise signal F
is exerted on the first floor of the model, and its time history is
Numerical Example illustrated in Fig. 3(a). By using the Newmark − β method, the dis-
placement responses of the six floors of the model can be readily
calculated. It is mentioned that the time duration of the simulated
Numerical Model
responses is set as 1 h (i.e., 3,600 s) with a sampling frequency
A 6DOF model is established as shown in Fig. 2, which is used to of fs ¼ 20 Hz. Based on the simulated responses of the 6DOF
demonstrate the modal identification procedure of the proposed im- model shown in Figs. 3(b–g), the modal identification using the
proved SSI-COV algorithm. The mass m of each mass block is de- proposed improved SSI-COV algorithm will be demonstrated in
fined as 1 unit, while the stiffness coefficients k1 ∼ k6 are set as the following sections.

© ASCE 04022066-4 J. Struct. Eng.

J. Struct. Eng., 2022, 148(6): 04022066

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by City University of Hong Kong on 08/12/23. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Fig. 3. Simulation of displacement responses of the 6DOF model: (a) external load; (b) displacement response of the 1st floor; (c) displacement
response of the 2nd floor; (d) displacement response of the 3rd floor; (e) displacement response of the 4th floor; (f) displacement response of the 5th
floor; and (g) displacement response of the 6th floor.
Modal Identification via the Proposed Method
Following the procedure described in the “Methodology” section,
the PSD curve of the structural dynamic response at the 6th floor
is first determined as illustrated in Fig. 4. It is shown in the figure
that the fundamental natural frequency, f f ¼ 0.12 Hz, and there
are N ¼ 5 structural modes are readily identified. Then the lower
limit of the time lag parameter i can be determined as imin ¼
f s =ff ¼ 20=0.12 ≈ 166, and the upper limit for i can be calculated
as imax ¼ imin × 2 ¼ 332. While for the system order n, its lower
limit can be determined as nmin ¼ N × 2 ¼ 10, and the upper limit
is nmax ¼ nmin × 2 ¼ 20. Thus, the ranges of the time lag
Fig. 4. PSD curve of displacement response of the 6th floor.
© ASCE
J. Struct. Eng., 2022, 148(6): 04022066
parameter i and system order n can be determined as [166, 332] and
[10, 20], respectively. Based on the Monte Carlo simulation, s ¼
60 sets of random integers ½i; n satisfying the conditions that i ∈
½166; 332 and n ∈ ½10; 20 can be generated. Accordingly, by per-
forming the SSI-COV method, 60 groups of structural modal
parameters, i.e., ½Ω1 ; Ω2 ; : : : ; Ω60 , can be obtained.
Next, the proposed two-stage stability check approach is used
and the corresponding Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram
can be obtained as illustrated in Fig. 5(a). The stable poles in
the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram are represented by
dots, while the unstable poles are denoted by asterisks. For com-
parison purposes, the conventional stabilization diagram for this
simulation example is also provided in Fig. 5(b). Although six
modes can be identified in the conventional stabilization diagram,
it encounters a serious problem that several spurious modes are
identified as stable poles, which have adverse effects on the accu-
racy of the modal identification results. While in the Monte Carlo–
based stabilization diagram, the six structural modes are clearly
identified and no spurious modes are misidentified as stable poles.
The natural frequencies and damping ratios of these identified sta-
ble poles are also plotted in Fig. 6. Based on this, the k-means clus-
tering method is used and the structural modal parameters can be
readily identified. For the computational time, it took 6.3 s to run
the proposed method on an Intel®-based personal computer with
2.50-GHz CPUs.
The estimated natural frequencies and damping ratios as well as
their corresponding 95% confidence intervals are listed in Table 1.
It is shown that the modal parameters estimated via the proposed
method are in good agreement with their theoretical values, with
relative errors less than 0.2% and 10% for natural frequency
and damping ratio, respectively. Moreover, the comparison be-
tween the estimated and theoretical mode shapes is illustrated in
04022066-5 J. Struct. Eng.
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by City University of Hong Kong on 08/12/23. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 5. Modal identification for the 6DOF model: (a) Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram; and (b) conventional stabilization diagram.

Repeatability and Robustness of the Proposed

Fig. 6. Natural frequencies and damping ratios of the identified stable
poles for the 6DOF model.
Fig. 7. It is observed that the estimated mode shapes are perfectly
correlated with the theoretical ones with the modal assurance cri-
terion (MAC) >99.9%. These results demonstrate that the proposed
method can provide accurate modal parameter estimates.
Algorithm
It should be mentioned that the proposed method is not a determin-
istic one as Monte Carlo simulation is involved in the analysis pro-
cess. Thus, the repeatability of the proposed algorithm needs to be
examined in this section. To yield reliable statistics, the proposed
algorithm is performed 100 times for the numerical example and
the results are illustrated in Figs. 8(a and b). It is shown that the
estimated modal parameters (i.e., natural frequency and damping
ratio) present excellent consistency among these 100 sets of results,
indicating the repeatability of the proposed algorithm in identifying
structural modal parameters.
In addition, because noise may exist in measurement signals, the
robustness of the proposed algorithm under different noise scenar-
ios is investigated in this section. Six levels of normally distributed
zero-mean noise are added into the structural responses of the
6DOF model shown in Figs. 3(a–g) to obtain the noise-added re-
sponses with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) equals 2db, 4db, 8db,
16db, 32db, and 64db, respectively. Based on these noise-added
responses, both the proposed algorithm and a reference method
proposed by Magalhaes et al. (2009) are used to identify the struc-
tural modal parameters. For each noise level, the noise-added re-
sponses are simulated 100 times and the two methods used are
performed 100 times accordingly. As shown in Figs. 9(a and b),
with the increase of noise level (i.e., decrease of SNR), the
dispersion degree of the identified modal parameters by the two
methods increases. Generally speaking, these two methods have

Table 1. Estimated natural frequencies and damping ratios of the 6DOF model
Natural frequency (Hz) Damping ratio (%)
Proposed 95% confidence Theoretical Relative Proposed 95% confidence Theoretical Relative
Mode method interval value error (%)a method interval value error (%)
Mode-1 0.1214 [0.1213, 0.1214] 0.1213 0.04 0.812 [0.76%, 0.86%] 0.770 5.41
Mode-2 0.3568 [0.3567, 0.3570] 0.3569 0.03 0.510 [0.46%, 0.56%] 0.559 8.75
Mode-3 0.5714 [0.5708, 0.5720] 0.5718 0.07 0.640 [0.46%, 0.82%] 0.678 5.64
Mode-4 0.7542 [0.7524, 0.7559] 0.7534 0.10 0.785 [0.71%, 0.86%] 0.816 3.79
Mode-5 0.8924 [0.8912, 0.8936] 0.8913 0.12 0.947 [0.90%, 0.99%] 0.929 1.94
Mode-6 0.9771 [0.9757, 0.9786] 0.9773 0.02 1.062 [0.94%, 1.18%] 1.003 5.91
a
Relative error ¼ jTheoretical value − Value by proposed methodj=Theoretical value.

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 it is applied to the field measured acceleration responses of a
600-m-high skyscraper during Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

Field Measurements on the Monitored Skyscraper

during Super Typhoon Mangkhut
The monitored 600-m-tall skyscraper (denoted by BLD hereafter)
shown in Fig. 10(a) is a new landmark of Shenzhen, which is cur-
rently the 4th tallest building in the world and the 2nd tallest in
China. BLD uses a hybrid structural system including a core-
tube connected by outriggers and steel beams to eight composited
steel-reinforced concrete mega-columns (Zhou et al. 2020). Given
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that the monitored building is located in Shenzhen, a typhoon-

prone region, BLD may be subjected to severe wind excitations
such as typhoons. In order to suppress the large-amplitude wind-
induced structural vibrations, BLD is equipped with an active
tuned mass damper (ATMD) system on the 113th floor. For the
purposes of monitoring the structural safety and serviceability
of the monitored skyscraper, an integrated long-term structural
health monitoring (SHM) system has been installed on BLD,
and detailed information regarding the SHM system can be found
in Li et al. (2018). Based on the SHM system, the structural
acceleration responses are simultaneously measured at 20 Hz via
accelerometers installed on 10 different floors in two orthogonal
directions (i.e., x-direction and y-direction). The layout of acceler-
ometers is illustrated in Fig. 10(b), from which one can observe that
the accelerometers were installed away from the center of the build-
ing cross section to measure the structural vibrations including
those of torsional modes.
In this section, 1-h-long acceleration responses of BLD at
the 10 floors during Super Typhoon Mangkhut are used here,
which were collected from 1,000 to 1,100 on September 16,
2018. The ATMD system was not working during the selected
Fig. 7. Comparison between the estimated and theoretical mode shapes
period due to a power failure accident. Time histories of the
of the 6DOF model.
selected acceleration responses at the top floor are displayed
in Fig. 11(a). It is shown that the peak acceleration responses
reached 11.4 and 11.0 cm=s2 in the x-direction and y-direction,
good robustness against noise, while the proposed algorithm has
respectively.
better performance than the reference method.

Modal Identification of the Monitored Building

Application to Field Measurements on a Skyscraper
Based on the selected structural responses, the structural modal
In this section, for the purposes of verifying the applicability parameters of the monitored building are identified by the pro-
and effectiveness of the proposed method to field measurements, posed algorithm in this section. First, for purpose of improving

Fig. 8. Repeatability check of the proposed algorithm: (a) natural frequency; and (b) damping ratio.

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Fig. 9. Robustness check of the proposed algorithm: (a) natural frequency; and (b) damping ratio.

Fig. 10. Monitored 600-m-tall skyscraper and the layout of accelerometers: (a) BLD (image by Kang Zhou); and (b) layout of accelerometers.

computational efficiency, the selected data sets are down-sampled
from 20 to 2 Hz. Following the procedure described in the “Meth-
odology” section, the PSD curves of the structural dynamic re-
sponses at the top floor of BLD are determined as illustrated in
Fig. 11(b). It is shown that the fundamental natural frequency of
BLD, ff ¼ 0.11 Hz, and there are N ¼ 8 structural modes clearly
identified. Then the lower limit of the time lag parameter i can be
determined as imin ¼ fs =f f ¼ 2=0.11 ≈ 18, and the upper limit of
i can be calculated as imax ¼ imin × 2 ¼ 36. While for the system
order n, its lower limit can be determined as nmin ¼ N ×
2 ¼ 16, and its upper limit is nmax ¼ nmin × 2 ¼ 32. Thus, the
ranges of the time lag parameter i and system order n can be de-
termined as [18, 36] and [16, 32], respectively. Based on the Monte
Carlo simulation, s ¼ 60 sets of random integers ½i; n satisfying
the conditions that i ∈ ½18; 36 and n ∈ ½16; 32 are generated.
Accordingly, by performing the SSI-COV method, 60 groups of
structural modal parameters of BLD, i.e., ½Ω1 ; Ω2 ; : : : ; Ω60 , are
obtained.
Next, the proposed two-stage stability check approach is
used and the corresponding Monte Carlo–based stabilization dia-
gram is obtained as illustrated in Fig. 12(a). The conventional
stabilization diagram for the selected acceleration responses of
BLD is also plotted in Fig. 12(b) for comparison purposes. As ex-
pected, a number of spurious modes are misidentified as stable
poles in the conventional stabilization diagram, which may lead
to the adverse effects on the accuracy of the modal identification
results. While in the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram,
eight structural modes of BLD are readily identified and no spu-
rious modes are misidentified as stable poles. Notably, closely
located fundamental sway modes of BLD (i.e., f1 ¼ 0.114 Hz,
f2 ¼ 0.117 Hz) can be clearly identified as shown in Fig. 12(a),
indicating that the proposed algorithm can deal with the critical
issue of mode-coupling in structural modal identification. The
natural frequencies and damping ratios of these identified stable
poles in Fig. 12(a) are plotted in Fig. 13. Based on this, the k-means
clustering method is used and the structural modal parameters

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Fig. 11. Selected acceleration responses on the top floor of BLD and corresponding PSD curves: (a) time histories of acceleration responses; and
(b) PSD curves.

Fig. 12. Modal identification for BLD: (a) Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram; and (b) conventional stabilization diagram.

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Fig. 13. Natural frequencies and damping ratios of the identified stable
poles for BLD.

can be readily identified. Table 2 summarizes the natural frequen-

cies and damping ratios of BLD identified by the proposed
approach, as well as the results estimated by a widely used method,
namely, the RDT. The results show that the modal parameters esti-
mated via the proposed method are in good agreement with those
by the RDT, verifying that the proposed method can provide accu-
rate estimates of structural modal parameters from field measure-
ments. It is worth noting that the proposed method can provide
identification results of modal parameters for multiple modes si-
multaneously, which is more efficient than the RDT that only
focuses on one single mode.
In this paper, a three-dimensional FEM of BLD was established
based on the structural information at its design stage. It is noted
that the nonstructural components have been considered in the
modeling process of the FEM. Based on the established model Fig. 14. FEM of BLD.
shown in Fig. 14, modal analysis is performed using the Ansys
software version 19.2. The natural frequencies of BLD obtained
from the FEM analysis are also provided in Table 2. It is shown
that natural frequencies determined by the field measurements the FEM analysis as illustrated in Figs. 15(a–c). It is observed that
are slightly higher than those by the FEM analysis. This may be the mode shapes estimated by the proposed method are well corre-
attributed to several reasons, such as the effective mass values lated with those determined by the FEM analysis. Noted that the
of BLD are lower than those assumed at the design stage, and/ mode shapes of sway modes of BLD are not perfectly aligned with
or the effective structural stiffness is higher than its design values their building geometric axis (i.e., x-direction and y-direction), this
due to the contribution by nonstructural components. can be attributed to the asymmetrical structural systems (specifically,
Moreover, the mode shapes of BLD are also identified via the the core tube) of the monitored building shown in Fig. 10(b). This
proposed method, which are compared with those determined by finding is consistent with the results reported in Li et al. (2020).

Table 2. Estimated natural frequencies and damping ratios of BLD

Natural frequency (Hz) Damping ratio (%)
Proposed 95% confidence Proposed 95% confidence
Mode method interval RDT FEM method interval RDT
Mode-1 0.1144 [0.1142, 0.1146] 0.115 0.109 0.62 [0.52, 0.72] 0.621
Mode-2 0.1167 [0.1166, 0.1167] 0.117 0.110 0.40 [0.33, 0.46] 0.473
Mode-3 0.2625 [0.2618, 0.2633] 0.263 0.252 1.33 [1.21, 1.46] 1.418
Mode-4 0.3873 [0.3862, 0.3884] 0.389 0.372 1.16 [1.00, 1.33] 0.859
Mode-5 0.3996 [0.3982, 0.4010] 0.400 0.376 0.97 [0.74, 1.21] 0.897
Mode-6 0.6664 [0.6659, 0.6669] 0.669 0.637 1.25 [1.21, 1.30] 0.864
Mode-7 0.7674 [0.7668, 0.7679] 0.770 0.732 0.98 [0.89, 1.07] 0.758
Mode-8 0.7914 [0.7886, 0.7942] 0.796 0.757 1.52 [1.30, 1.75] 1.169

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Fig. 15. Comparison between the measured and calculated mode shapes of BLD: (a) Mode-1–Mode-3; (b) Mode-4–Mode-6; and
(c) Mode-7–Mode-8.

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 In summary, based on this comparative analysis, it can be
concluded that the proposed algorithm is applicable and effec-
tive for estimating the structural modal parameters from field
measurements.
Conclusions
This paper proposed a novel methodology based on the SSI-COV
for accurate estimation of modal parameters of civil structures such
as high-rise buildings. First, the ranges of two parameters in per-
forming SSI-COV (i.e., time lag parameter i and system order n)
were determined based on the PSD analysis of structural dynamic
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responses. Next, several sets of random integers ½i; n were gener-
ated by using the Monte Carlo simulation, and the SSI-COV was
accordingly performed for estimating structural modal parameters.
Then, a two-stage stability check approach was used to discrimi-
nate the estimated results denoting the physical modes from
those representing spurious modes, and the corresponding Monte
Carlo–based stabilization diagram can be established. Finally,
based on the established diagram, the k-means clustering method
was adopted to determine structural modal parameters.
Both the numerical simulation study and field measurements on
a high-rise building during a typhoon event were performed to
verify the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed methodology.
Based on the numerical simulation study, the good performance
of the Monte Carlo–based stabilization diagram for discriminating
the poles denoting the physical modes from those representing
spurious modes was verified. The numerical simulation results
demonstrated that the proposed method can estimate structural mo-
dal parameters with high accuracy and robustness. As for the field
measurement application, the modal parameters of the monitored
600-m-high skyscraper estimated by the proposed method were
compared with those obtained by the RDT and FEM analysis.
The natural frequencies and damping ratios identified by the pro-
posed method were in good agreement with those by the RDT, and
the mode shapes estimated by the proposed method were well cor-
related with those determined by the FEM analysis. These results
verified that the proposed algorithm is applicable and effective for
estimating structural modal parameters from field measurements.
Therefore, the proposed method is an effective tool for accurate
estimation of modal parameters of civil structures.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study
appear in the published paper.
Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant
from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Admin-
istrative Region, China (Project No. CityU 11207519), a grant from
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project
No. 51778554), and a grant from City University of Hong Kong
(Project No. 7005770).
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