ABSTRACT

A finite element (FE) model of a large civil structure, based on design drawings as described in Chapter 6, inevitably has modelling errors compared with its real structure, due to construction variations, uncertainties in boundary conditions, variations in material properties, inaccuracy in FE model discretisation, uncertainties in external excitations and so on. The initial FE model therefore needs to be finely tuned to match references to reduce modelling errors and produce a better FE model to represent the real one.