Structural system identification of elevated steel water tank using ambient vibration test and calibration of numerical model

This research aims to investigate the feasibility of using ambient vibration testing for system identification of an elevated water tank. To identify the natural dynamic properties, the experimental study is carried out on an elevated steel water tank located in Tehran. The tank is instrumented with a sensitive velocimeter sensor (microtremor), and the ambient velocity of the tank is recorded for 30min in three orthogonal axes. Employing the peak-picking method in the frequency domain, the fundamental frequency of the tank is determined as about 1.9Hz. Then, the numerical model of the tank is generated and calibrated based on the obtained data. In the primary modeling, the values of natural frequencies of the tank are in good agreement with the results of the ambient vibration data. This finding is judged to be reasonable considering no clear sign of corrosion in the steel material.