Vibration Source Signal Identification of Structures Using ICA

Independent component analysis (ICA) technique based on statistical independency of the signals is known as suitable to identify the source signals by measuring and separating mixed signals through transfer paths and has successfully applied in the field of medical care, communications and so forth. In this study, the ICA technique is introduced for the identification of excitation sources from measured vibration signals of structures, which can be done by evaluating negentropy of centered and whitened vibration signals and correlation of separated signals. To validate the method, numerical analyses are carried out for a plate and a cylinder structure. The results show that the method can be applied efficiently to source identification of complex structures. Nevertheless, additional studies would be required to complement problems of occasional inaccuracy.