• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.399-411
• /
• 2018

The difficulty in modeling complex nonlinear structures lies in the presence of significant sources of uncertainties mainly attributed to sudden changes in the structure's behavior caused by regular aging factors or extreme events. Quantifying these uncertainties and accurately representing them within the complex mathematical framework of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) are significantly essential for system identification and damage detection purposes. This study highlights the importance of uncertainty quantification in SHM frameworks, and presents a comparative analysis between intrusive and non-intrusive techniques in quantifying uncertainties for SHM purposes through two different variations of the Kalman Filter (KF) method, the Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and the Polynomial Chaos Kalman Filter (PCKF). The comparative analysis is based on a numerical example that consists of a four degrees-of-freedom (DOF) system, comprising Bouc-Wen hysteretic behavior and subjected to El-Centro earthquake excitation. The comparison is based on the ability of each technique to quantify the different sources of uncertainty for SHM purposes and to accurately approximate the system state and parameters when compared to the true state with the least computational burden. While the results show that both filters are able to locate the damage in space and time and to accurately estimate the system responses and unknown parameters, the computational cost of PCKF is shown to be less than that of EnKF for a similar level of numerical accuracy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2013.10a
• /
• pp.320-324
• /
• 2013

A crack identification method using an equivalent bending stiffness for cracked beam and committee of neural networks is presented. The equivalent bending stiffness is constructed based on an energy method for a straight thin-walled pipe, which has a through-the-thickness crack, subjected to bending. Several numerical analysis for a steel cantilever pipe using the equivalent bending stiffness are carried out to extract the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the cracked beam. The extracted modal properties are used in constructing a training patterns of a neural network. The input to the neural network consists of the modal properties and the output is composed of the crack location and size. Multiple neural networks are constructed and each individual network is trained independently with different initial synaptic weights. Then, the estimated crack locations and sizes from different neural networks are averaged. Experimental crack detection is carried out for 3 damage cases using the proposed method, and the identified crack locations and sizes agree reasonably well with the exact values.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.185-201
• /
• 2022

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is used to provide reliable information about the structure's integrity in near realtime following extreme incidents such as earthquakes, considering the inevitable aging and degradation that occurs in operating environments. This paper experimentally investigates an integrated wireless sensor network (Wi-SN) based monitoring technique for damage detection in concrete structures. An effective SHM technique can be used to detect potential structural damage based on post-earthquake data. Two novel methods are proposed for damage detection in reinforced concrete (RC) building structures including: (i) Jerk Energy Method (JEM), which is based on time-domain analysis, and (ii) Modal Contributing Parameter (MCP), which is based on frequency-domain analysis. Wireless accelerometer sensors are installed at each story level to monitor the dynamic responses from the building structure. Prior knowledge of the initial state (immediately after construction) of the structure is not required in these methods. Proposed methods only use responses recorded during ambient vibration state (i.e., operational state) to estimate the damage index. Herein, the experimental studies serve as an illustration of the procedures. In particular, (i) a 3-story shear-type steel frame model is analyzed for several damage scenarios and (ii) 2-story RC scaled down (at 1/6th) building models, simulated and verified under experimental tests on a shaking table. As a result, in addition to the usual benefits like system adaptability, and cost-effectiveness, the proposed sensing system does not require a cluster of sensors. The spatial information in the real-time recorded data is used in global damage identification stage of SHM. Whereas in next stage of SHM, the damage is detected at the story level. Experimental results also show the efficiency and superior performance of the proposed measuring techniques.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.409-424
• /
• 2015

Structural nonlinearity is a common phenomenon encountered in engineering structures under severe dynamic loading. It is necessary to localize and identify structural nonlinearities using structural dynamic measurements for damage detection and performance evaluation of structures. However, identification of nonlinear structural systems is a difficult task, especially when proper mathematical models for structural nonlinear behaviors are not available. In prior studies on nonparametric identification of nonlinear structures, the locations of structural nonlinearities are usually assumed known and all structural responses are measured. In this paper, an identification algorithm is proposed for locating and identifying model-free structural nonlinearities and systems using incomplete measurements of structural responses. First, equivalent linear structural systems are established and identified by the extended Kalman filter (EKF). The locations of structural nonlinearities are identified. Then, the model-free structural nonlinear restoring forces are approximated by power series polynomial models. The unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is utilized to identify structural nonlinear restoring forces and structural systems. Both numerical simulation examples and experimental test of a multi-story shear building with a MR damper are used to validate the proposed algorithm.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.351-366
• /
• 2010

A novel system identification and structural health assessment procedure of steel framed structures with semi-rigid connections is presented in this paper. It is capable of detecting damages at the local element level under normal operating conditions; i.e., serviceability limit state. The procedure is a linear time-domain system identification technique in which the structure responses are required, whereas the dynamic excitation force is not required to identify the structural parameters. The procedure tracks changes in the stiffness properties of all the elements in a structure. It can identify damage-free and damaged structural elements very accurately when excited by different types of dynamic loadings. The method is elaborated with the help of several numerical examples. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm identified the structures correctly and detected the pre-imposed damages in the frames when excited by earthquake, impact, and harmonic loadings. The algorithm can potentially be used for structural health assessment and monitoring of existing structures with minimum disruption of operations. Since the procedure requires only a few time points of response information, it is expected to be economic and efficient.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.58 no.6
• /
• pp.1087-1107
• /
• 2016

A method of damage detection based on the moving harmonic excitation and continuous wavelet transforms is presented. The applied excitation is used as a moving actuator and its frequency and speed parameters can be adjusted for an amplified response. The continuous wavelet transforms, CWT, is used for cracks detection based on the resulting amplified signal. It is demonstrated that this identification procedure is largely better than the classical ones based on eigenfrequencies or on the eigenmodes wavelet transformed. For vibration responses, free and forced vibration analyses of multi-cracked beams are investigated based on both analytical and numerical methodological approaches. Cracks are modeled through rotational springs whose compliances are evaluated using linear elastic fracture mechanics. Based on the obtained forced responses, multi-cracks positions are accurately identified and the CWT identification can be highly improved by adjusting the frequency and the speed excitation parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.259-264
• /
• 2005

This paper presents a vital area identification (VAI) method based on the current fault tree analysis (FTA) and probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) techniques for the physical protection of nuclear power plants. A structured framework of a top event prevention set analysis (TEPA) application to the VAI of nuclear power plants is also delineated. One of the important processes for physical protection in a nuclear power plant is VAI that is a process for identifying areas containing nuclear materials, structures, systems or components (SSCs) to be protected from sabotage, which could directly or indirectly lead to core damage and unacceptable radiological consequences. A software VIP (Vital area Identification Package based on the PSA method) is being developed by KAERI for the VAI of nuclear power plants. Furthermore, the KAERI fault tree solver FTREX (Fault Tree Reliability Evaluation eXpert) is specialized for the VIP to generate the candidates of the vital areas. FTREX can generate numerous MCSs for a huge fault tree with the lowest truncation limit and all possible prevention sets.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.19 no.3 s.73
• /
• pp.313-322
• /
• 2006

In the genetic algoricm (GA) based damage detection methods using vibration of structures, the selection of modal properties is important to improve the accuracy of damage detection. The objective of this study is to improve the accuracy of damage detection using natural frequency and modal strain energy, The following approaches are used to achieve the goal. First, modal strain energy is formulated and a new GA-based damage detection technique using natural frequency and modal strain energy is proposed. Next, to verify the efficiency of proposed technique, damage scenarios for free-free beam are designed and vibration modal tests of the target structure are conducted. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed technique is verified in comparison with other GA-based damage detection technique using natural frequency and mode shape.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.625-638
• /
• 2007

The damage detection process may appear difficult to be implemented for truss structures because not all degrees of freedom in the numerical model can be experimentally measured. In this context, the damage locating vector (DLV) method, introduced by Bernal (2002), is a useful approach because it is effective when operating with an arbitrary number of sensors, a truncated modal basis and multiple damage scenarios, while keeping the calculation in a low level. In addition, the present paper also evaluates the noise influence on the accuracy of the DLV method. In order to verify the DLV behavior under different damages intensities and, mainly, in presence of measurement noise, a parametric study had been carried out. Different excitations as well as damage scenarios are numerically tested in a continuous Warren truss structure subjected to five noise levels with a set of limited measurement sensors. Besides this, it is proposed another way to determine the damage locating vectors in the DLV procedure. The idea is to contribute with an alternative option to solve the problem with a more widespread algebraic method. The original formulation via singular value decomposition (SVD) is replaced by a common solution of an eigenvector-eigenvalue problem. The final results show that the DLV method, enhanced with the alternative solution proposed in this paper, was able to correctly locate the damaged bars, using an output-only system identification procedure, even considering small intensities of damage and moderate noise levels.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.9-20
• /
• 1999

A method is proposed to estimate the joint damages of a steel structure from modal data using the neural networks technique. The beam-to-column connection in a steel frame structure is represented by a zero-length rotational spring of the end of the beam element, and the connection fixity factor is defined based on the rotational stiffness so that the factor may be in the range 0~1.0. Then, the severity of joint damage is defined as the reduction ratio of the connection fixity factor. Several advanced techniques are employed to develop the robust damage identification technique using neural networks. The concept of the substructural indentification is used for the localized damage assessment in the large structure. The noise-injection learning algorithm is used to reduce the effects of the noise in the modal data. The data perturbation scheme is also employed to assess the confidence in the estimated damages based on a few sets of actual measurement data. The feasibility of the proposed method is examined through a numerical simulation study on a 2-bay 10-story structure and an experimental study on a 2-story structure. It has been found that the joint damages can be reasonably estimated even for the case where the measured modal vectors are limited to a localized substructure and the data are severely corrupted with noise.