• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.333-347
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• 2009

Due to structural complicacy, structural health monitoring for civil engineering needs more accurate and effectual methods of damage identification. This study aims to import multi-source information fusion (MSIF) into structural damage diagnosis to improve the validity of damage detection. Firstly, the essential theory and applied mathematic methods of MSIF are introduced. And then, the structural damage identification method based on multi-mode information fusion is put forward. Later, on the basis of a numerical simulation of a concrete continuous box beam bridge, it is obviously indicated that the improved modal strain energy method based on multi-mode information fusion has nicer sensitivity to structural initial damage and favorable robusticity to noise. Compared with the classical modal strain energy method, this damage identification method needs much less modal information to detect structural initial damage. When the noise intensity is less than or equal to 10%, this method can identify structural initial damage well and truly. In a word, this structural damage identification method based on multi-mode information fusion has better effects of structural damage identification and good practicability to actual structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.207-217
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• 2017

Because of the inevitable uncertainties such as structural parameters, external excitations and measurement noises, the effects of uncertainties should be taken into consideration in structural damage detection. In this paper, two probabilistic structural damage detection approaches are proposed to account for the underlying uncertainties in structural parameters and external excitation. The first approach adopts the statistical moment-based structural damage detection (SMBDD) algorithm together with the sensitivity analysis of the damage vector to the uncertain parameters. The approach takes the advantage of the strength SMBDD, so it is robust to measurement noise. However, it requests the number of measured responses is not less than that of unknown structural parameters. To reduce the number of measurements requested by the SMBDD algorithm, another probabilistic structural damage detection approach is proposed. It is based on the integration of structural damage detection using temporal moments in each time segment of measured response time history with the sensitivity analysis of the damage vector to the uncertain parameters. In both approaches, probability distribution of damage vector is estimated from those of uncertain parameters based on stochastic finite element model updating and probabilistic propagation. By comparing the two probability distribution characteristics for the undamaged and damaged models, probability of damage existence and damage extent at structural element level can be detected. Some numerical examples are used to demonstrate the performances of the two proposed approaches, respectively.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.445-466
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• 2008

This paper presents a novel structural damage detection method with a new damage index based on the statistical moments of dynamic responses of a structure under a random excitation. After a brief introduction to statistical moment theory, the principle of the new method is put forward in terms of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system. The sensitivity of statistical moment to structural damage is discussed for various types of structural responses and different orders of statistical moment. The formulae for statistical moment-based damage detection are derived. The effect of measurement noise on damage detection is ascertained. The new damage index and the proposed statistical moment-based damage detection method are then extended to multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems with resort to the leastsquares method. As numerical studies, the proposed method is applied to both single and multi-story shear buildings. Numerical results show that the fourth-order statistical moment of story drifts is a more sensitive indicator to structural stiffness reduction than the natural frequencies, the second order moment of story drift, and the fourth-order moments of velocity and acceleration responses of the shear building. The fourth-order statistical moment of story drifts can be used to accurately identify both location and severity of structural stiffness reduction of the shear building. Furthermore, a significant advantage of the proposed damage detection method lies in that it is insensitive to measurement noise.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.315-341
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• 2007

A sudden change of stiffness in a structure, associated with the events such as weld fracture and brace breakage, will cause a discontinuity in acceleration response time histories recorded in the vicinity of damage location at damage time instant. A new damage index is proposed and implemented in this paper to detect the damage time instant, location, and severity of a structure due to a sudden change of structural stiffness. The proposed damage index is suitable for online structural health monitoring applications. It can also be used in conjunction with the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for damage detection without using the intermittency check. Numerical simulation using a five-story shear building under different types of excitation is executed to assess the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed damage index and damage detection approach for the building at different damage levels. The sensitivity of the damage index to the intensity and frequency range of measurement noise is also examined. The results from this study demonstrate that the damage index and damage detection approach proposed can accurately identify the damage time instant and location in the building due to a sudden loss of stiffness if measurement noise is below a certain level. The relation between the damage severity and the proposed damage index is linear. The wavelet-transform (WT) and the EMD with intermittency check are also applied to the same building for the comparison of detection efficiency between the proposed approach, the WT and the EMD.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.231-244
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• 2013

An efficient method is proposed here to identify multiple damage cases in structural systems using the concepts of flexibility matrix and strain energy of a structure. The flexibility matrix of the structure is accurately estimated from the first few mode shapes and natural frequencies. Then, the change of strain energy of a structural element, due to damage, evaluated by the columnar coefficients of the flexibility matrix is used to construct a damage indicator. This new indicator is named here as flexibility strain energy based index (FSEBI). In order to assess the performance of the proposed method for structural damage detection, two benchmark structures having a number of damage scenarios are considered. Numerical results demonstrate that the method can accurately locate the structural damage induced. It is also revealed that the magnitudes of the FSEBI depend on the damage severity.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.197-208
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• 2019

The objective of this study is to propose new seismic intensity parameters based on the Hilbert spectrum and to associate them with the seismic damage potential. In recent years the assessment of even more seismic features derived from the seismic acceleration time-histories was associated with the structural damage. For a better insight into the complex seismic acceleration time-history, Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) analysis is utilized for its processing, and the Hilbert spectrum is obtained. New proposed seismic intensity parameters based on the Hilbert spectrum are derived. The aim is to achieve a significant estimation of the seismic damage potential on structures from the proposed new intensity parameters confirmed by statistical methods. Park-Ang overall structural damage index is used to describe the postseismic damage status of structures. Thus, a set of recorded seismic accelerograms from all over the word is applied on a reinforced concrete frame structure, and the Park-Ang indices through nonlinear dynamic analysis are provided and considered subsequently as reference numerical values. Conventional seismic parameters, with well-known seismic structural damage interrelation, are evaluated for the same set of excitations. Statistical procedures, namely correlation study and multilinear regression analysis, are applied on the set of the conventional parameters and the set of proposed new parameters separately, to confirm their interrelation with the seismic structural damage. The regression models are used for the evaluation of the structural damage indices for every set of parameters, respectively. The predicted numerical values of the structural damage indices evaluated from the two sets of seismic intensity parameters are inter-compared with the reference values. The numerical results confirm the ability of the proposed Hilbert spectrum based new seismic intensity parameters to approximate the postseismic structural damage with a smaller Standard Error of Estimation than this accomplished of the conventional ones.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.337-362
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• 2015

This paper presents a feasibility study on structural damage alarming and localization of long-span cable-supported bridges using multi-novelty indices formulated by monitoring-derived modal parameters. The proposed method which requires neither structural model nor damage model is applicable to structures of arbitrary complexity. With the intention to enhance the tolerance to measurement noise/uncertainty and the sensitivity to structural damage, an improved novelty index is formulated in terms of auto-associative neural networks (ANNs) where the output vector is designated to differ from the input vector while the training of the ANNs needs only the measured modal properties of the intact structure under in-service conditions. After validating the enhanced capability of the improved novelty index for structural damage alarming over the commonly configured novelty index, the performance of the improved novelty index for damage occurrence detection of large-scale bridges is examined through numerical simulation studies of the suspension Tsing Ma Bridge (TMB) and the cable-stayed Ting Kau Bridge (TKB) incurred with different types of structural damage. Then the improved novelty index is extended to formulate multi-novelty indices in terms of the measured modal frequencies and incomplete modeshape components for damage region identification. The capability of the formulated multi-novelty indices for damage region identification is also examined through numerical simulations of the TMB and TKB.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.89-110
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• 2014

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is an effective alternative to conventional inspections which are time-consuming and subjective. SHM can detect damage early and reduce maintenance cost and thereby help reduce the likelihood of catastrophic structural events to infrastructure such as bridges. After reviewing the Damage Index Method (DIM), an Iterative Damage Index Method (IDIM) is proposed to improve the accuracy of damage detection. These two damage detection techniques are compared based on damage on two structures, a simply supported beam and a pedestrian bridge. Compared to the traditional damage detection algorithm, the proposed IDIM is shown to be less arbitrary and more accurate.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.672-679
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• 2005

Damage detection is a very active research field, in which significant efforts have been invested in recent years. In this paper, analysis using structural stiffness estimation for damage detection is presented and compared to other methodologies. By using a cantilever analytical beam model, it is shown here that not only location but also the amount of damage in structure can be predicted from the ratio of change in stiffness. Damage detection experiment in real beam specimen on is also peformed and the results are compared.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.283-294
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• 2001

In the present work a constitutive model is developed which permits the assessment of the structural performance through a criterion based on cumulative damage. For it, a damage index is defined and is evaluated through the application of the Miner's rule in low-cycle fatigue. However, the damage index is not considered as a posteriori variable since is incorporated explicitly as an internal variable in the constitutive equations which produces a direct coupling between the damage and the structural mechanical behaviour allowing the possibility of considering as a whole different coupled phenomena. For the elaboration of this damage model, the concepts of the mechanics of continuum medium are applied on lumped dissipative models in order to obtain a coupled simplified model. As a result an elastoplastic model coupled with damage and fatigue damage is obtained.