A new estimation method in modal analysis

In this paper, the modal analysis model, which is made up by a linear combination of complex exponential functions, is considered. The problem of estimating the number of modes as well as the frequencies, decays, amplitudes, and phases and their variability is afforded by means of the condensed distribution of the poles of Padé approximants to the -transform of the data. This provides a unified framework in which all of these problems can be solved in an almost automatic way. It is experimentally proved that the results favorably compare with that provided by well-established methods.