• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.6 no.9
• /
• pp.1057-1077
• /
• 2010

An early detection of structural damages is critical for the decision making of repair and replacement maintenance in order to guarantee a specified structural reliability. Consequently, the structural damage detection, based on vibration data measured from the structural health monitoring (SHM) system, has received considerable attention recently. The traditional time-domain analysis techniques, such as the least square estimation (LSE) method and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) approach, require that all the external excitations (inputs) be available, which may not be the case for some SHM systems. Recently, these two approaches have been extended to cover the general case where some of the external excitations (inputs) are not measured, referred to as the adaptive LSE with unknown inputs (ALSE-UI) and the adaptive EKF with unknown inputs (AEKF-UI). Also, new analysis methods, referred to as the adaptive sequential non-linear least-square estimation with unknown inputs and unknown outputs (ASNLSE-UI-UO) and the adaptive quadratic sum-squares error with unknown inputs (AQSSE-UI), have been proposed for the damage tracking of structures when some of the acceleration responses are not measured and the external excitations are not available. In this paper, these newly proposed analysis methods will be compared in terms of accuracy, convergence and efficiency, for damage identification of structures based on experimental data obtained through a series of laboratory tests using a scaled 3-story building model with white noise excitations. The capability of the ALSE-UI, AEKF-UI, ASNLSE-UI-UO and AQSSE-UI approaches in tracking the structural damages will be demonstrated and compared.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.419-433
• /
• 2020

Investigation of structural integrity has been a critical issue in the field of civil engineering for years. Visual inspection is one of the most available methods to explore deteriorative components in structures. Still, this method is not applicable to invisible damage of structures. Alternatively, system identification methods are capable of tracking modal properties of structures over time. The deviation of these dynamic properties can serve as indicators to access structural integrity. In this study, a modal tracking technique using frequency-domain system identification from seismic responses of structures is proposed. The method first segments the measured signals into overlapped sequential portions and then establishes multiple Hankel matrices. Each Hankel matrix is then converted to the frequency domain, and a temporal-average frequency-domain Hankel matrix can be calculated. This study also proposes the frequency band selection that can divide the frequency-domain Hankel matrix into several portions in accordance with referenced natural frequencies. Once these referenced natural frequencies are unavailable, the first few right singular vectors by the singular value decomposition can offer these references. Finally, the frequency-domain stochastic subspace identification tracks the natural frequencies and mode shapes of structures through quick stabilization diagrams. To evaluate performance of the proposed method, a numerical study is carried out. Moreover, the long-term monitoring strong motion records at a specific site are exploited to assess the tracking performance. As seen in results, the proposed method is capable of tracking modal properties through seismic responses of structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.4 no.6
• /
• pp.795-807
• /
• 2008

A challenging problem in structural damage detection based on vibration data is the requirement of a large number of sensors and the numerical difficulty in obtaining reasonably accurate results when the system is large. To address this issue, the substructure identification approach may be used. Due to practical limitations, the response data are not available at all degrees of freedom of the structure and the external excitations may not be measured (or available). In this paper, an adaptive damage tracking technique, referred to as the sequential nonlinear least-square estimation with unknown inputs and unknown outputs (SNLSE-UI-UO) and the sub-structure approach are used to identify damages at critical locations (hot spots) of the complex structure. In our approach, only a limited number of response data are needed and the external excitations may not be measured, thus significantly reducing the number of sensors required and the corresponding computational efforts. The accuracy of the proposed approach is illustrated using a long-span truss with finite-element formulation and an 8-story nonlinear base-isolated building. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of tracking the local structural damages without the global information of the entire structure, and it is suitable for local structural health monitoring.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.151-159
• /
• 2022

This study discusses a hypothetical method for tracking the propagation damage of Carbon Reinforced Fiber Plastic (CRFP) components underneath vibration fatigue. The High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) behavior of composite materials was generally not as severe as this of admixture alloys. Each fissure initiation in metal alloys may quickly lead to the opposite. The HCF behavior of composite materials is usually an extended state of continuous degradation between resin and fibers. The increase is that any layer-to-layer contact conditions during delamination opening will cause a dynamic complex response, which may be non-linear and dependent on temperature. Usually resulted from major deformations, it could be properly surveyed by a non-contact investigation system. Here, this article discusses the scanning laser application of that vibrometer to track the propagation damage of CRFP components underneath fatigue vibration loading. Thus, the study purpose is to demonstrate that the investigation method can implement systematically a series of hypothetical means and dynamic characteristics. The application of the relaxation method based on numerical simulation in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Evolved Bat (EB) strategy to reduce the dynamic response is proved by numerical simulation. Thermal imaging cameras are also measurement parts of the chain and provide information in qualitative about the temperature location of the evolution and hot spots of damage.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.158-163
• /
• 2023

Objects adrift can cause considerable damage to coastal infrastructure and property during tsunami and storm surge events. Despite the potential for harm, the drifting behavior of these objects remains poorly understood, thereby hindering effective prediction and mitigation of collision damage. To address this gap, this study employed a motion analysis program to track a drifting container's location using images from an existing laboratory experiment. The container's trajectory and velocity were calculated based on the positions of five markers strategically placed at its four corners and center. Our findings indicate that the container's maximum drift velocity and distance are directly influenced by the scale of the solitary wave and inversely related to the container's weight. Specifically, heavier containers are less likely to be displaced by solitary waves, while larger waves can damage coastal structures more. This study offers new insights into container drift behavior induced by solitary waves, with implications for enhancing coastal infrastructure design and devising mitigation strategies to minimize the risk of collision damage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.9-21
• /
• 2023

The parameters of civil engineering structures have time-variant characteristics during their service. When extremely large external excitations, such as earthquake excitation to buildings or overweight vehicles to bridges, apply to structures, sudden or gradual damage may be caused. It is crucially necessary to detect the occurrence time and severity of the damage. The unscented Kalman filter (UKF), as one efficient estimator, is usually used to conduct the recursive identification of parameters. However, the conventional UKF algorithm has a weak tracking ability for time-variant structural parameters. To improve the identification ability of time-variant parameters, an adaptive UKF with forgetting factor (AUKF-FF) algorithm, in which the state covariance, innovation covariance and cross covariance are updated simultaneously with the help of the forgetting factor, is proposed. To verify the effectiveness of the method, this paper conducted two case studies as follows: the identification of time-variant parameters of a simply supported bridge when the vehicle passing, and the model updating of a six-story concrete frame structure with field test during the Yangbi earthquake excitation in Yunnan Province, China. The comparison results of the numerical studies show that the proposed method is superior to the conventional UKF algorithm for the time-variant parameter identification in convergence speed, accuracy and adaptability to the sampling frequency. The field test studies demonstrate that the proposed method can provide suggestions for solving practical problems.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.52 no.5
• /
• pp.571-581
• /
• 2024

After a disaster like the catastrophic earthquake, the government have to use rapid assessment of the condition (or damage) of bridges, buildings and other infrastructures is mandatory for rapid feedbacks, rescue and post-event management. This work studies the tracking control problem of a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems with input saturation nonlinearity. Under the framework of dynamic surface control design, RBF neural networks are introduced to approximate the unknown nonlinear dynamics. In order to address the impact of input saturation nonlinearity in the system, an auxiliary control system is constructed, and by introducing a class of first-order low-pass filters, the problems of large computation and computational explosion caused by repeated differentiation are effectively solved. In response to unknown parameters, corresponding adaptive updating control laws are designed. The goals of this paper are towards access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services, promotion of inclusive and sustainable urbanization and participation, implementation of sustainable and disaster-resilient buildings, sustainable human settlement planning and manage. Simulation results of linear and nonlinear structures show that the proposed method is able to identify structural parameters and their changes due to damage and unknown excitations. Therefore, the goal is believed to achieved in the near future by the ongoing development of AI and control theory.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.573-583
• /
• 2023

Although unmanned aerial vehicles have been used to overcome the limited accessibility of human-based visual inspection, unresolved issues still remain. Onsite inspectors face difficulty finding previously detected damage locations and tracking their status onsite. For example, an inspector still marks the damage location on a target structure with chalk or drawings while comparing the current status of existing damages to their previous status, as documented onsite. In this study, an augmented-reality-based structural inspection system with onsite damage information marking was developed to enhance the convenience of inspectors. The developed system detects structural damage, creates a holographic marker with damage information on the actual physical damage, and displays the marker onsite via an augmented reality headset. Because inspectors can view a marker with damage information in real time on the display, they can easily identify where the previous damage has occurred and whether the size of the damage is increasing. The performance of the developed system was validated through a field test, demonstrating that the system can enhance convenience by accelerating the inspector's essential tasks such as detecting damages, measuring their size, manually recording their information, and locating previous damages.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Rheology Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.61-64
• /
• 2006

Soft materials, such as polymer solutions, gels and filamentous protein materials in cells, show complicated behavior due to their complex structures and dynamics with multiple characteristic time and length scales. Several complementary techniques have been developed to measure viscoelastic of soft materials. Especially, particle tracking microrheology, using the Brownian motion of particles in a medium to get rheological properties, has recently been improved both theoretically and experimentally. Compared to other conventional methods, video particle tracking microrheology has some advantages such as small sample volume, detecting spatial variation of local rheological properties, and less damage to sample materials. With these advantages, microrheology is more suitable to measure the properties of complex materials than other mechanical rheometries.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.207-230
• /
• 2012

Full-scale shake table seismic experiments and low-amplitude vibration tests on a masonry building are carried out to assess its seismic performance as well as study the effectiveness of a new multifunctional textile material for retrofitting masonry structures against earthquakes. The un-reinforced and the retrofitted with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) strips masonry building was subjected to a series of earthquake excitations of increasing magnitude in order to progressively induce various small, moderate and severe levels of damage to the masonry walls. The performance of the original and retrofitted building states is evaluated. Changes in the dynamic characteristics (lowest four modal frequencies and damping ratios) of the building are used to assess and quantify the damage states of the masonry walls. For this, the dynamic modal characteristics of the structure states after each earthquake event were estimated by performing low-amplitude impulse hammer and sine-sweep forced vibration tests. Comparisons between the modal results calculated using traditional accelerometers and those using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the reinforcing textile were carried on to investigate the reliability and accuracy of FBG sensors in tracking the dynamic behaviour of the building. The retrofitting actions restored the stiffness characteristics of the reinforced masonry structure to the levels of the original undamaged un-reinforced structure. The results show that despite a similar dynamic behavior identified, corresponding to reduction of the modal frequencies, the un-reinforced masonry building was severely damaged, while the reinforced masonry building was able to withstand, without visual damage, the induced strong seismic excitations. The applied GFRP reinforcement architecture for one storey buildings was experimentally proven reliable for the most severe earthquake accelerations. It was easily placed in a short time and it is a cost effective solution (covering only 20% of the external wall surfaces) when compared to the cost for full wall coverage by GFRPs.