Structural health monitoring data reconstruction of a concrete cable-stayed bridge based on wavelet multi-resolution analysis and support vector machine

The accuracy and integrity of stress data acquired by bridge heath monitoring system is of significant importance for bridge safety assessment. However, the missing and abnormal data are inevitably existed in a realistic monitoring system. This paper presents a data reconstruction approach for bridge heath monitoring based on the wavelet multi-resolution analysis and support vector machine (SVM). The proposed method has been applied for data imputation based on the recorded data by the structural health monitoring (SHM) system instrumented on a prestressed concrete cable-stayed bridge. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed wavelet-based SVM prediction method is examined by comparing with the traditional autoregression moving average (ARMA) method and SVM prediction method without wavelet multi-resolution analysis in accordance with the prediction errors. The data reconstruction analysis based on 5-day and 1-day continuous stress history data with obvious preternatural signals is performed to examine the effect of sample size on the accuracy of data reconstruction. The results indicate that the proposed data reconstruction approach based on wavelet multi-resolution analysis and SVM is an effective tool for missing data imputation or preternatural signal replacement, which can serve as a solid foundation for the purpose of accurately evaluating the safety of bridge structures.