Early parametric identification is critical for the decision making of repair or replacement in order to guarantee structural safety. Nowadays, aircraft thin-walled structures are widely applied in aero-/astronautics areas and their health conditions receive considerable attention. Parameter identification in aircraft thin-walled structures is more challenging because of the structural complexity. In this research, a new time-domain analysis method, the sequential nonlinear least square estimation (SNLSE) method, along with model reduction technique is proposed to identify the parameters of aircraft thin-walled structures using vibration data, which is referred to as the reduced order model based SNLSE approach. Herein, model reduction technique is used to reduce the number of degrees of freedom for conducive to the placement of sensors and high-efficiency calculation by SNLSE method. Simulation and experimental studies have been conducted for the parameter identification of the aluminum thin-walled structure. As demonstrated by simulation and experimental results, the proposed approach using incomplete measurements is very effective in parameter identification of aircraft thin-walled structures
