Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2011
A stochastic spectral method is proposed to estimate the nonlinear parameters of a system subjected to random excitation. Sometimes, it is impossible to measure the excitation process; therefore, estimation must then be based on the response measurement only, in conjunction with a stochastic model of the excitation. The concept of this method is to establish an objecting function involving the unknown parameters through frequency domain analysis, and then we can minimize the objecting function to estimate the unknown parameters by using standard nonlinear optimization algorithm. Finally, the validation of the proposed method is accomplished through many simulations and it can be concluded that the proposed method is applicable to a variety of different problems.