Sensor Placement for Modal Parameter Subset Estimation: A Frequency Response-based Approach

The present paper proposes an approach for deciding on sensor placements in the context of modal parameter estimation from vibration measurements. The approach is based on placing sensors, of which the amount is determined a priori, such that the minimum Fisher information that the frequency responses carry on the selected modal parameter subset is, in some sense, maximized. The approach is validated in the context of a simple 10-DOF mass-spring-damper system by computing the variance of a set of identified modal parameters in a Monte Carlo setting for a set of sensor configurations, whose anticipated effectiveness are ranked according to the noted criterion. It is contended that the examined max-min criterion satisfies the objective of optimizing the accuracy of an identification setup more effectively than the more commonly used trace or determinant of the Fisher information matrix (FIM). It is shown that the widely used Effective Independence (EI) method, which uses the modal amplitudes as surrogates for the parameters of interest, provides sensor configurations yielding theoretical lower bound variances whose maxima are up to 30 % larger than those obtained by use of the max-min approach.