• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.273-295
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• 2018

In this study, an investigation of a damage detection methodology for global condition assessment is presented. A particular emphasis is put on the utilization of wireless sensors for more practical, less time consuming, less expensive and safer monitoring and eventually maintenance purposes. Wireless sensors are deployed with a sensor roving technique to maintain a dense sensor field yet requiring fewer sensors. The time series analysis method called ARX models (Auto-Regressive models with eXogeneous input) for different sensor clusters is implemented for the exploration of artificially induced damage and their locations. The performance of the technique is verified by making use of the data sets acquired from a 4-span bridge-type steel structure in a controlled laboratory environment. In that, the free response vibration data of the structure for a specific sensor cluster is measured by both wired and wireless sensors and the acceleration output of each sensor is used as an input to ARX model to estimate the response of the reference channel of that cluster. Using both data types, the ARX based time series analysis method is shown to be effective for damage detection and localization along with the interpretations and conclusions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2019

Finite element analysis is one of the most used tools for studying femoral neck fracture. Nerveless, consensus concerning either the choice of material characteristics, damage law and /or geometric models (linear on nonlinear) remains unreached. In this work, we propose a numerical quasi-brittle damage model to describe the behavior of the proximal femur associated with two methods to evaluate the Young modulus. Eight proximal femur finite elements models were constructed from CT scan data (4 donors: 3 women; 1 man). The numerical computations showed a good agreement between the numerical curves (load - displacement) and the experimental ones. A very encouraging result is obtained when a comparison is made between the computed fracture loads and the experimental ones ($R^2=0.825$, Relative error =6.49%). All specific numerical computation provided very fair qualitative matches with the fracture patterns for the sideway fall simulation. Finally, the comparative study based on 32 simulations adopting linear and nonlinear meshing led to the conclusion that the quantitatively results are improved when a nonlinear mesh is used.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.107-127
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• 2022

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has been related to damage identification with either operational loads or other environmental loading playing a significant complimentary role in terms of structural safety. In this study, a non-parametric method of time frequency analysis on the measurement is used to address the time-frequency representation for modal parameter estimation and system damage identification of structure. The method employs the wavelet decomposition of dynamic data by using the modified complex Morlet wavelet with variable central frequency (MCMW+VCF). Through detail discussion on the selection of model parameter in wavelet analysis, the method is applied to study the dynamic response of both steel structure and reinforced concrete frame under white noise excitation as well as earthquake excitation from shaking table test. Application of the method to building earthquake response measurement is also examined. It is shown that by using the spectrogram generated from MCMW+VCF method, with suitable selected model parameter, one can clearly identify the time-varying modal frequency of the reinforced concrete structure under earthquake excitation. Discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of the method through field experiments are also presented.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.61-81
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• 2023

This study presents an ensemble learning based Bayesian model updating approach for structural damage diagnosis. In the developed framework, the structure is initially decomposed into a set of substructures. The autoregressive moving average (ARMAX) model is established first for structural damage localization based structural motion equation. The wavelet packet decomposition is utilized to extract the damage-sensitive node energy in different frequency bands for constructing structural surrogate models. Four methods, including Kriging predictor (KRG), radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), support vector regression (SVR), and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), are selected as candidate structural surrogate models. These models are then resampled by bootstrapping and combined to obtain an ensemble model by probabilistic ensemble. Meanwhile, the maximum entropy principal is adopted to search for new design points for sample space updating, yielding a more robust ensemble model. Through the iterations, a framework of surrogate ensemble learning based model updating with high model construction efficiency and accuracy is proposed. The specificities of the method are discussed and investigated in a case study.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to propose a new approach for quantifying in situ rock mass damage, which would include a degree-of-damage and the degraded strength of a rock mass, along with its prediction based on real-time Acoustic Emission (AE) observations. The basic approach for quantifying in-situ rock mass damage is to derive the normalized value of measured AE energy with the maximum AE energy, called the degree-of-damage in this study. With regard to estimation of the AE energy, an AE crack source location algorithm of the Wigner-Ville Distribution combined with Biot's wave dispersion model, was applied for more reliable AE crack source localization in a rock mass. In situ AE wave attenuation was also taken into account for AE energy correction in accordance with the propagation distance of an AE wave. To infer the maximum AE energy, fractal theory was used for scale-independent AE energy estimation. In addition, the Weibull model was also applied to determine statistically the AE crack size under a jointed rock mass. Subsequently, the proposed methodology was calibrated using an in situ test carried out in the Underground Research Tunnel at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. This was done under a condition of controlled incremental cyclic loading, which had been performed as part of a preceding study. It was found that the inferred degree-of-damage agreed quite well with the results from the in situ test. The methodology proposed in this study can be regarded as a reasonable approach for quantifying rock mass damage.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.5A
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• pp.421-431
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• 2009

This paper is the study on the verification of structural health monitoring (SHM) algorithm based on the ultrasonic guided wave. An active inspection system using Lamb wave (LW) for SHM was considered. The basic study about the application of this algorithm was performed for detecting the circular notch defect in steel plate. LW testing technique, pitch-catch method, was used for interpretation of circular notch defect with depth of 50% of plate thickness and 7 mm width. Damage characterization takes place by comparing $S_0$ mode sensor signals collected before and after the damage event. By subtracting the signals of both conditions from each other, a scatter signal is produced which can be used for damage localization. The continuous Gabor wavelet transform is used to attain the time between the arrivals of the scatter and sensor signals. A new practical damage monitoring algorithm, based on damage monitoring polygon and pitch-catch method, has been proposed and verified with good accuracy. The possible damage location can be estimated by the average on calculated location points and the damage extent by the standard deviation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1189-1202
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• 2016

This paper describes an application of wavelet analysis for damage detection of a steel frame structure with bolted connections. The wavelet coefficients of the acceleration response for the healthy and loosened connection structure were calculated at each measurement point. The difference of the wavelet coefficients of the response of the healthy and loosened connection structure is selected as an indicator of the damage. At each node of structure the norm of the difference of the wavelet coefficients matrix is then calculated. The point for which the norm has the higher value is a candidate for location of the damage. The above procedure was experimentally verified on a laboratory-scale 2-meter-long steel frame. The structure consists of 11 steel beams forming a four-bay frame, which is subjected to impact loads using a modal hammer. The accelerations are measured at 20 different locations on the frame, including joints and beam elements. Two states of the structure are considered: healthy and damaged one. The damage is introduced by means of loosening two out of three bolts at one of the frame connections. Calculating the norm of the difference of the wavelet coefficients matrix at each node the higher value was found to be at the same location where the bolts were loosened. The presented experiment showed the effectiveness of the wavelet approach to damage detection of frame structures assembled using bolted connections.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.107-122
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• 2019

As one of the most important parameters in structural health monitoring, structural frequency has many advantages, such as convenient to be measured, high precision, and insensitive to noise. In addition, frequency-change-ratio based method had been validated to have the ability to identify the damage occurrence and location. However, building a precise enough finite elemental model (FEM) for the test structure is still a huge challenge for this frequency-change-ratio based damage detection technique. In order to overcome this disadvantage and extend the application for frequencies in structural health monitoring area, a novel method was developed in this paper by combining the cross-model cross-mode (CMCM) model updating algorithm with the frequency-change-ratio based method. At first, assuming the physical parameters, including the element mass and stiffness, of the test structure had been known with a certain value, then an initial to-be-updated model with these assumed parameters was constructed according to the typical mass and stiffness distribution characteristic of shear buildings. After that, this to-be-updated model was updated using CMCM algorithm by combining with the measured frequencies of the actual structure when no damage was introduced. Thus, this updated model was regarded as a representation of the FEM model of actual structure, because their modal information were almost the same. Finally, based on this updated model, the frequency-change-ratio based method can be further proceed to realize the damage detection and localization. In order to verify the effectiveness of the developed method, a four-level shear building was numerically simulated and two actual shear structures, including a three-level shear model and an eight-story frame, were experimentally test in laboratory, and all the test results demonstrate that the developed method can identify the structural damage occurrence and location effectively, even only very limited modal frequencies of the test structure were provided.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 2023

Fatigue crack is a fatal problem for steel structures. Early detection and maintenance can help extend the service life and prevent hazards. This paper presents the ultrasonic guided waves-based (UGWs-based) fatigue crack detection of a steel I-beam. The semi-analytical finite element model has been built to obtain the wave propagation characteristics. Damage indices in both time and frequency domains were analyzed by considering the characteristic variations of UGWs including the amplitude, phase angle, and wave packet energy. The pulse-echo and pitch-catch methods were combined in the detection scheme. Lab-scale experiments were conducted on welded steel I-beams to verify the proposed method. Results show that the damage indices based on the characteristic variations in the time domain can identify and localize the fatigue crack before it enters the rapid growth stage. The damage severity can be reasonably evaluated by analyzing the time-domain damage indices. Two nonlinear damage indices in the frequency domain give earlier warnings of the fatigue crack than the time-domain damage indices do. The identification results based on the above two nonlinear indices are found to be less consistent under various excitation frequencies. More robust nonlinear techniques needed to be searched and tested for early crack detection in steel I-beams in further study.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.207-223
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• 2013

Practical seismic assessment and design of retrofit for the multitude of small ecclesiastical monuments that abound in the Balkans is the subject of this work. Application of the proposed procedures and methodologies are illustrated in an example case study, a small byzantine church located in Western Greece, which is the region with the highest seismicity in Europe. The church, known as the Fragavilla Monastery, had remained almost undamaged for 800 years, until 1993 when the Pyrgos earthquake caused critical damage mainly in the vaults. Linear elastic analysis to the recorded ground motion, capped by a biaxial failure criterion reproduced the developed damage. The same modelling and analysis procedure was subsequently used for assessment of the intended retrofitting measures. Proposed retrofitting measures included mitigation of the undesirable implications of past interventions along with a combination of strengthening schemes with externally bonded AFRPs strategically placed in the structure. The effectiveness of the proposed solutions is gauged by successful reduction of stress intensity in the critical regions and mitigation of stress localization throughout the structure.