Identification of modal parameters of a floating system from impulse motion

The modal parameters of a scale-modeled discus-shaped data buoy in heave and pitch are estimated from the experimentally measured impulse response time histories. The use of phase-time, time-frequency domains for derivation of natural frequencies and damping are demonstrated in this paper. The phase-time method is based on the Hilbert transformation, whereas, the time-frequency method is based on the continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) of the measured time histories. In addition, the conventional time and frequency domain method of modal parameter estimation is also adopted for the comparison of results. The details of the model, test procedure, analysis and results are presented in this paper. The modal parameters obtained through CWT are found to be accurate compared to that obtained from the time and frequency domain analysis. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.