Experimental Vibration Analysis for Civil Engineering Structures

393

Experimental determination of dynamic properties of the concrete

foundation of a cement roller mill
V. Denol
University of Lige, Department of Architecture, Geology, Environment and Construction, Belgium

C. Butz
Maurer Shne GmbH & Co. KG, Germany

H. Jakobi
Polysius AG, Thyssen Krupp

M. Feldmann
RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Steel and Lightweight Construction, Germany

ABSTRACT: Extensive dynamic measurements are performed on the massy and stiff concrete
foundation of a cement roller mill. Dynamic properties like mode shapes, natural frequencies
and damping ratios are determined using the SSI-COV method. A methodology for the statistical estimation of these modal properties by evaluating a sufficient amount of time windows is
derived and discussed.
1 INTRODUCTION
In civil engineering applications it is generally not possible to investigate structures in ideal testing conditions. Identification tests have to be performed outside laboratory. In this context, it is
thus necessary to cope with significantly noisy signals. A common way to deal with noise is to
repeat the measurements until an averaged estimate of PSDs (or correlation matrices) is considered to be sufficiently accurate to provide reliable results. This procedure requires very long
measurements and provides single values for modal parameters.
In case of the massy and stiff concrete foundation of the cement roller mill, the noise in signals is of the same order as the vibrations caused by ambient energy. Therefore, the structure is
excited by hammer impacts. The time of the decaying vibration is too short to obtain sufficiently accurate averaged estimates of PSDs. Hence, a different evaluation methodology for a
reliable estimation of the modal properties based on statistical considerations is derived.
From long duration measurements, a large amount of very small time windows is extracted and
the identification is performed for each of them. The huge number of evaluated time windows
allows statistical estimations of modal parameters. Not all modes show up a significant response
in each time window due to the shortness of the time windows, the influence of the noise and
the non-ideal testing conditions. Hence, for each mode only relevant windows have to be selected, which give reliable indications of the pertinent modal characteristics.
This identification methodology is applied to the investigation of the modal properties such
as damping ratios, natural frequencies and mode shapes of the QUADROPOL ([2]) roller mill.
Four triaxial force-balanced accelerometers are used during five different setups in order to detect the most relevant modes of the structure.
2 INVESTIGATED STRUCTURE
The QUADROPOL roller mill for raw material was developed by Polysius AG (a company of
Thyssen-Krupp Technologies). With a grinding capacity of more than to 12000 tons of raw material per day for the largest plants, it is a very efficient vertical mill. Its foundation is composed
of four inversed L-shaped pylons allowing a back-and-forth movement of the roller units
(Fig. 1). The pylons are made of concrete, vertically prestressed in order to avoid any cracking

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from the grinding process. In addition the pylons of the investigated structure are linked at the
top by a ring in order to limit the radial displacements.
The feed chute and the separator (upper part), as well as the grinding table and the discharge
ring (lower part), are supported by structural elements that can be considered to be independent.
The investigation concerns therefore the massy and stiff pylons and the ring only. They lie on a
huge base-isolated foundation that limits the transmission of vibration to and from other parts of
the plant.

Figure 1: Schematic description of the QUADROPOL roller mill.

3 INSTRUMENTATION AND TEST PROCEDURE

Four triaxial force-balanced accelerometers (Geosig AC-63 sensors, DC to 100 Hz, Range
0.5 g, [1]) are used in combination with four Geosig GSR-18 recorders, which deliver synchronous signals, to determine the modal characteristics of the foundation. Accelerations at various
points of the investigated structure are measured during five different setups. The nomenclature
used for measurement points is illustrated in Figure 2 and the listing of selected measurement
points for each setup is reported in Table 1. They have been chosen as a compromise between
the desired accuracy, the accessibility and the limited allowed disturbance of production.

Figure 2: Location of measurement points on the ring and pylons (left) and on the block foundation
(right).

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Table 1. Location of sensors and description of excitation for each test set-up
Setu
Location of Sensors
Excitation and application of impact excitation
p
1
MP 1, MP 2, MP 3, MP 4
Vertical impacts on MP 4, between MP 2 and MP 3, and MP 1
Horizontal impacts on MP 3
2
MP 4, MP 5, MP 6, MP 7
Vertical impacts on MP 4, MP 5 and MP 6
3
MP 4, MP 7, MP 8, MP 9
Vertical impacts on MP 6, between MP 7 and MP 8, MP 9 and
MP 10 - Horizontal impacts on MP 8 Vertical impacts on MP10
4
MP 3, MP 8, MP 12, MP 14 Ambient excitation
5
MP 8, F1, F2, F3
Ambient excitation

Figure 3. Typical measurement results (Setup 3, vertical accelerations at MP4)

The QUADROPOL roller mill foundation has been investigated during an out-of-service
stage. The main excitation consists in vertical and horizontal hammer impacts at measurement
points. For setups 1 to 3, impacts are generated by three different hammers at several locations
(Table 1). The hammers are standard mallets with different rubber tips and have therefore different excitation spectra. During setups 4 and 5 ambient vibrations have been measured. In this
case, excitation sources are wind and energy transmitted to the structure via the ground or from
other parts of the structure although not perfectly independent. In all setups the excitations remain unknown and the identification is performed with an output-only method.
Each measurement data set is composed of 12 channels (radial, tangential and vertical at four
locations) sampled at 200 Hz. A typical example of measurement is illustrated in Figure 3 where
various zooms on the vertical accelerations at MP4 during setup 3 are depicted. The hammer
impacts can be distinguished easily. Since the excitation is supposed to be limited to hammer
impacts, it should be noticed that a somewhat significant noise-to-signal ratio is in evidence in
this time-history display. As for setups 1 and 2, six series of 30 hammer hits are applied at each

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impact location. As a result, approximately 900 hammer hits are recorded during each setup
within about 30 min.
4 IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURE
The measured signals are assessed with the Stochastic Subspace Identification method based
on Covariance matrices (SSI-COV), as described precisely in the literature ([3], [4]). The identification aims at fitting a discrete stochastic state-space model on the measured data. This model
is represented by:

xk +1 = Axk + wk

(1)

yk = Cxk + vk

where yk ( l 1 ) represents the measured output, xk ( n 1 ) represents the state-space vector,

vk and wk are white noises simulating respectively the error introduced by the measurement
system and the model inaccuracies. The state transition matrix A ( n n ) encapsulates the information about the modal characteristics of the system. Its eigenvalue decomposition:

A = d 1

(2)

provides the eigenvector matrix (n n) and the eigenvalues of the discrete state space model
(diagonal elements of d ). The more usual natural frequencies i and damping ratios i are
obtained from:

dii = ei t

i = ii + 1 i 2 i

(3)

The estimation of the mode shapes V requires the use of the output matrix C :

V = C

(4)

Because the SSI-COV method is a state space model, it provides complex mode shapes. In civil
engineering application the damping is usually proportional (or considered to be so) and the
mode shapes are thus real. In the case of the massy and stiff QUADROPOL concrete foundation, and because of a significant concentrated damping added by the isolated foundation, the
mode shapes are however found to be complex (see Section 5).
The SSI-COV method provides estimates for the state transition matrix and for the output
matrix, which result from the factorization property of the correlation matrix and robust numerical tools for eigen value decompositions and Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse. But the dynamic
model order has to be guessed and the stabilisation diagram ([3]) is used as a convenient tool to
sort out the realistic modes and the spurious ones.
5 RESULTS
Even if the cement mill is not white-noise excited, the SSI-COV method is able to provide reliable estimates of the modal properties ([3]) for natural frequencies that are much larger/ than the
hammering rate.
Instead of performing the identification with the whole signal (~30 min long), the gross signal
is divided in smaller time segments referred to as blocks in the following. The identification is
performed separately for each of them, providing as much modal estimates as the number of
blocks. In order to obtain sufficient data for statistical estimates of the modal characteristics,
each block contains the response to a single impact. For each setup, the measured signal is thus
decomposed into approximately 900 blocks. Another advantage of this kind of selection is to
enlighten any transient modification of modal properties during the measurement duration.

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Figure 4. Example of stabilisation diagram (from the response to a hammer impact, n=50, t=0.8s)

Figure 4 represents a typical stabilisation diagram for model orders ranging from 5 to 50
based on a covariance matrix computed for 0.8 s (160 data points). The stable poles are represented by circled crosses and partially stable poles with appended labels. In order to help in analyzing the diagram, the trace of the PSD matrix is added as a visual help in the background. It
has to be kept in mind that the identification is performed from the correlation matrix only. Two
PSDs are actually represented; one is computed from the whole signal, the other from the considered block. Evidently, the frequency content of the whole signal is much richer than a single
blocks one. Depending on the excitation location, the hammer impacts aim at emphasizing the
response of certain modes. For example, the mode around 24 Hz is not well reproduced by the
impact considered in Figure 4 but well in other impacts. The purpose of the following developments consists in establishing a systematic procedure selecting, for each considered mode, the
list of relevant blocks.
Due to the small vibration amplitude of the massy foundation, to the shortness of the blocks
and the fact that the errors in the estimation of the correlation matrix are not averaged (as it
would be with a longer signal) the stable poles cannot be identified easily. Furthermore, a large
number of stabilisation diagrams exist (approx. 2700 diagrams for setups 1 to 3!) for the statistical analysis of the modal parameters and it would be tedious to analyse each of them separately.
Hence, a superstabilisation diagram is introduced that facilitates the statistical analysis of a
huge number of stabilisation diagrams (Fig. 5). It consists of nothing else than the collection of
the upper lines of several stabilisation diagrams. Its interpretation is similar to that of the common stabilisation diagram: horizontal lines appearing in the superstabilisation diagram represent
relevant modes whereas isolated crosses represent spurious modes.
Because each impact location aims at highlighting different modes, superstabilisation diagrams are determined for each impact location separately. For the whole investigation of the
roller mill, 30 superstabilisation diagrams, collecting about 180 hammer hits each, are derived.
The horizontal lines appearing in a superstabilisation diagram indicate the existence of natural
modes at these frequencies. These main trends are analysed in a systematic way, by sweeping
horizontal lines into the diagram and counting a distance-weighted number of crosses. This
automatic detection of fifteen trends results in the light gray lines represented in Figure 5. The
automatic procedure determines, for each identified frequency, a list of blocks (i.e. hammer impacts) for which this frequency is identified within a chosen accuracy (3 %). The number of
blocks related to each mode is thus reduced to less than 180.

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Figure 5. Example of superstabilisation digram (Setup 3, vertical impacts between MP7 and MP8)

Mean values and standard deviations of the identified natural frequencies are determined
(Table 1). The scatter is, of course, insignificant because the blocks have been selected in accordance with their ability to produce a natural frequency in the vicinity of the chosen approximate
given one.
For each block that fulfils the frequency criterium, damping ratios and modal deformations
are also notified by picking in the stabilisation diagram the values related to the model order
providing the most reliable values (the criterion is based on the evolution of stability throughout
the model orders). Their variability is however much more important because:
for some blocks, the identification procedure could provide another natural frequency
close to the searched one or a spurious pole and the automatically selected mode could
correspond to a completely different mode shape;
the identification procedure could provide several natural frequencies within the given
accuracy range. In this case, the first one is taken but it might be the wrong one. The selected mode could correspond to another mode shape or to a spurious pole;
some blocks could be of poor quality to give reliable estimates of the mode shapes but
of sufficiently good for the determination of the natural frequency, and thus previously
kept.
Figure 6 illustrates the described aspects by showing the scatter of damping ratios in some selected modes. Some modes provide a larger scatter, whereas others provide slightly scattered
values (and thus reliable because reproducible). Table 2 indicates the number of blocks after the
first frequency-based refinement as well as the corresponding statistical modal estimates. In
most cases the deviation of the damping ratio is closely linked to the deviation of the natural
frequencies. The difficulty to identify properly every mode and the need for a new refinement
are clearly enlightened. (e.g. Mode 8 for which the standard deviation of the damping coefficient is almost as large as the mean value).
A second refinement is then performed with regard to the scatter in the damping ratios. This
second selection is again performed in a systematic way: the damping ratios located in a userdefined confidence interval around the median values are kept. The underlying idea is that if the
originally selected blocks are really relevant for the considered mode then the damping ratios
for all blocks should not show a large scatter. Anyway, if they show a large scatter, the result
cannot be considered to be reliable. In this case, it is better to simply remove some blocks from
the list.

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Table 2. Estimations of natural frequencies and damping ratios at various refinement levels
After the first refinement (frequency-based)
Nb blocks
Natural frequency [Hz]
Damping ratio [ ]
Mean
Std
Mean
Std
Mode 4
107
35.11
0.17
0.0289
0.0042
Mode 5
179
45.67
0.10
0.0197
0.0014
Mode 8
58
52.63
0.15
0.0057
0.0044
After the second refinement (damping-based)
Nb blocks
Natural frequency [Hz]
Damping ratio [ ]
Mean
Std
Mean
Std
Mode 4
100
35.10
0.15
0.0282
0.0033
Mode 5
178
45.67
0.10
0.0196
0.0013
Mode 8
18
52.64
0.18
0.0048
0.0010
After the third refinement (mode shape-based)
Nb blocks
Natural frequency [Hz]
Damping ratio [ ]
Mean
Std
Mean
Std
Mode 4
86
35.09
0.15
0.0278
0.0032
Mode 5
178
45.67
0.10
0.0196
0.0013
Mode 8
13
52.62
0.18
0.0048
0.0011

Figure 6. Illustration of the spread of damping ratios after the first selection of blocks (frequency-based
criterion) - Setup 3, vertical impacts between MP7 and MP8.

Figure 7. Illustration of the spread of modes shapes after the second refinement (damping-based criterion)
- Setup 3, vertical impacts between MP7 and MP8.

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Figure 8. Illustration of some identified modes - Setup 3, vertical impacts between MP7 and MP8)

After this second refinement, the number of blocks for each mode can eventually be reduced
drastically. For example, only 18 remaining blocks are considered for the representation of
mode 8 (Table 2). It illustrates the difficulty to identify with confidence all natural modes in
case of noisy measurements. In this particular case the damping ratio of Mode 8 is so small that
it is impossible to be evaluated without a signficant scatter. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that the mode shapes are anyway accurately estimated.
In order to improve the results of the selected modes further as possible, a third refinement is
performed this time with respect to modes shapes. As a simple indicator of the quality of results
related to the mode shape estimates, the mean quadratic real and imaginary parts are computed
(Fig. 7). Exactly as for the previous refinement, the graphical illustration indicates promptly
modes that are well identified (Mode 5) and others that would deserve a dedicated care (Mode
8). Concerning the former kind, any identification procedure could be applied but concerning
the latter one, the obtained statistical information about the modal characteristics is an important
feature allowing a verdict about the reliability of the results.
The bar diagram in Figure 8 illustrates the resulting modal deformations. Finally, 86, 178 and
13 blocks are kept for the considered modes (see Table 2). In Figure 8, each bar represents the
modal deformation of a single block. Concerning the results obtained for Mode 5, the reproducibility of the modal characteristics is so good that it is almost impossible to distinguish the
different bars. The mode shape corresponds to in-phase vertical vibrations of pylon 2s tip end
(channels 6 & 9). As intuitively expected this vertical motion is accompanied by a radial component as well (channels 5 & 8). The imaginary parts of the mode shapes are small and could
eventually be neglected, which suggests the possibility to model the structures damping as proportional. Another interesting feature is the evolution of the imaginary part of Mode 5 (channels
6 & 9) throughout the blocks, i.e. during the measurement process. It might be caused by a
modification of damping properties (change of temperature) during the long-time measurement.
The methodology presented so far has to be repeated for each superstabilisation diagram,
each of them referring to a particular setup and a particular hammer impact location. The mode
shapes resulting from the superstabilisation diagrams can be combined with each other in order
to build global mode shapes integrating more than 4 measurement points. Furthermore, better

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estimates of the damping ratios and natural frequencies are obtained by combining the suitable
blocks selected from each superstabilisation diagram.
In the next step the identified modes will be used as input for future FE model updating. The
objective of the FE model is to better capture the structural behaviour of the heavy pylons and
the way they are coupled by the presence of the surrounding ring.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Contrarily to the common procedure, the identification of noisy measurements can be advantageously performed on small portions of the signal. Usually the noise, which is supposed to be
stationary and gaussian, or at least symmetrically distributed, is eliminated due to the performance of the identification with very long measurements. When working with small blocks these
hypotheses do not have to be formulated (or at least not at the same scale). For instance, transient estimates of the modal properties can be estimated. Furthermore, because the identification
is repeated for a large number of time windows, a statistical treatment of these results is possible.
The major difficulty encountered in working with modal identification on small blocks is that
not every time window delivers reliable modal estimates for each mode. A systematic methodology for sorting out these time windows is presented: after three successive refinements, an optimum set of time windows offering the most reliable estimation of the natural frequency, damping ratio and mode shape is obtained. The reliability criterion is based on the reproducibility of
the measurement.
The identification on small time windows and the developments of the systematic identification technique are only possible with superstabilisation diagrams, a collection of subsets of
many stabilisation diagrams. The complete investigation of the cement mill foundation requires
the analysis of 30 superstabilisations diagrams only, whereas there would be more than 5000
stabilisation diagrams to be analysed or treated in another systematic way.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.geosig.com/downloads/leaflets/L_AC-63DH.pdf
[2] Peeters, B. 2001. System Identification and Damage Detection in Civil Engineering. PhD thesis, Katolieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
[3] The new QUADROPOL vertical mill, Dietmar, Schulz, ThyssenKrupp Techforum, pp. 72-77,
ThyssenKrupp AG, Corporate Technology, Germany.
[4] Van Overschee, P., de Moor, B. 1996: Subspace Identification for Linear Systems: Theory
ImplementationApplications. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

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