Experimental modal analysis based on a gray-box model of flexible structures

The main objective of this paper is to propose an experimental modal analysis procedure, based on the use of a gray-box model for flexible structures. The described approach presents interesting advantages with respect to commercial solutions: ease of use due to the low number of parameters to set for an identification session; no need for expert users, even in the presence of particular cases such as double modes, since it does not use a stabilization diagram to be elaborated; use of a gray-box model whose unknown parameters have a clear physical meaning. All these characteristics are discussed in the paper, and the performance of the proposed procedure has been evaluated by using experimental data available from a non-trivial standard benchmark. The results have been compared with those obtained by using a commercial tool.