Model updating using causal information: a case study in coupled slab

Problems like improper sampling (sampling on unnecessary variables) and undefined prior distribution (or taking random priors) often occur in model updating. Any such limitations on model parameters can lead to lower accuracy and higher experimental costs (due to more iterations) of structural optimisation. In this work, we explored the effective dimensionality of the model updating problem by leveraging the causal information. In order to utilise the causal structure between the parameters, we used Causal Bayesian Optimisation (CBO), a recent variant of Bayesian Optimisation, to integrate observational and intervention data. We also employed generative models to generate synthetic observational data, which helps in creating a better prior for surrogate models. This case study of a coupled slab structure in a recreational building resulted in the modal updated frequencies which were extracted from the finite element of the structure and compared to measured frequencies from ambient vibration tests found in the literature. The results of mode shapes between experimental and predicted values were also compared using modal assurance criterion (MAC) percentages. The updated frequency and MAC number that was obtained using the proposed model was found in least number of iterations (impacts experimental budget) as compared to previous approaches which optimise the same parameters using same data. This also shows how the causal information has impact on experimental budget.