Instantaneous frequency extraction in time-varying structures using a maximum gradient method

A method is proposed for the identification of instantaneous frequencies (IFs) in time-varying structures. The proposed method combines a maximum gradient algorithm and a smoothing operation. The maximum gradient algorithm is designed to extract the wavelet ridges of response signals. The smoothing operation, based on a polynomial curve fitting algorithm and a threshold method, is employed to reduce the effects of random noises. To verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method, a numerical example of a signal with two frequency modulated components is investigated and an experimental test on a steel cable with time-varying tensions is also conducted. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can extract IFs from the noisy multi-component signals and practical response signals successfully. In addition, the proposed method can provide a better IF identification results than the standard synchrosqueezing wavelet transform.