Object‐Oriented Approach to Ambient Vibration Measurement Analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of the PC‐based ambient vibration measurement program, ULTRA, which is used to determine the dynamic characteristics of bridge structures. This program facilitates a large variety of options for the efficient analysis of large time‐signal records. An object‐oriented approach was used to develop the analytical modules of the program. This approach permits the analysis of large data records within the memory constraints of DOS. The object‐oriented approach is implemented in standard ANSI C. Therefore the resulting source can easily be expanded to accommodate future developments and remains very portable. This paper introduces some of the fundamental concepts of object‐oriented programming using a series of examples from the ambient vibration analysis program. The encapsulation of data and functions as well as dynamic memory allocation are demonstrated using a typical source code for this implementation. Some of the main features of the ambient vibration measurement analysis are presented and the overall program organization is discussed.