Development of an Open-Source Python Software for Structural Health Monitoring with Advanced Signal Processing Techniques

The current dissertation document presents the development of an open-source Python library designed for Operational Modal Analysis (OMA). The main objective of pyOMA2 package is to provide an open-source, user-friendly software ecosystem whereby researchers and engineers may benefit from easy access to advanced and state-of-the-art OMA techniques. The growing demand for OMA in the built environment, as an essential instrument for structural health monitoring, has underlined the need for easily available computational tools; pyOMA2 attempts to cover this gap by using the Python programming language's versatility and simplicity. This dissertation document begins with a starting overview of the current panorama of OMA methods and the already available tools nowadays, pointing out their constraints in terms of accessibility, cost, and adaptability. This background helps the reader to appreciate why an open-source strategy is advantageous, particularly one that is developed using the vast library ecosystem of Python programming language. The modular design of pyOMA2's allows users to combine several analysis approaches, therefore offering a flexible toolkit for preprocessing, analysis, and visualization of OMA data. The software design and architecture of pyOMA2's are thoroughly discussed, especially focusing on system components including data ingestion, preprocessing modules, algorithmic layers, and visualizing tools. A significant effort was invested in the software's best practices and design principles which ensure the ease of code extension and maintainability, therefore enabling the package to be fit for both professional and educational use. Unified Modeling Language (UML) software diagrams have been included to illustrate the architecture of the main component of the library and the main workflow of the most common operations applied to structural data. Moreover, UML diagrams have also been conceived to be a valid reference for future developers and researchers. Afterward, the document analyzes an overview of the development process, including version control, continuous integration, and deployment, unit, and integration testing. Furthermore, this document discusses the primary subject of licensing in the open-source field, including its benefits and highlighting how collaborative development can accelerate innovation in the development of the package. The dissertation ends with the presentation of a real case study and a discussion of possible opportunities for further improvements to pyOMA2, including the expansion of the package with new OMA techniques and the implementation of modifications to optimize its reliability.