• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.173-191
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• 2010

Damage detection plays a very important role to the maintenance of bridge structures. Traditional damage detection methods are usually based on structural dynamic properties, which are acquired from pre-installed sensors on the bridge. This is not only time-consuming and costly, but also suffers from poor sensitivity to damage if only natural frequencies and mode shapes are concerned in a noisy environment. Recently, the idea of using the dynamic responses of a passing vehicle shows a convenient and economical way for damage detection of bridge structures. Inspired by this new idea and the well-established tap test in the field of non-destructive testing, this paper proposes a new method for obtaining the damage information through the acceleration of a passing vehicle enhanced by a tapping device. Since no finger-print is required of the intact structure, this method can be easily implemented in practice. The logistics of this method is illustrated by a vehicle-bridge interaction model, along with the sensitivity analysis presented in detail. The validity of the method is proved by some numerical examples, and remarks are given concerning the potential implementation of the method as well as the directions for future research.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.449-467
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• 2018

In this paper, a theoretical and numerical study on bridge simultaneous damage detection procedure for identifying both the system parameters and input excitation mass, are presented. This method is called 'Adjoint Variable Method' which is an iterative gradient-based model updating method based on the dynamic response sensitivity. The main advantage of proposed method is inclusion of an analytical method to augment the accuracy and speed of the solution. Moving mass is a model which takes into account the inertia effects of the vehicle. This interaction model is a time varying system and proposed method is capable of detecting damage in this variable system. Robustness of proposed method is illustrated by correctly detection of the location and extension of predetermined single, multiple and random damages in all ranges of speed and mass ratio of moving vehicle. A comparison study of common sensitivity and proposed method confirms its efficiency and performance improvement in sensitivity-based damage detection methods. Various sources of errors including the effects of measurement noise and initial assumption error in stability of method are also discussed.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.138-146
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• 1996

The presence of a damage, such as a crack, in a structure increases the flexibility and damping in the structure. Most of methods to detect damage or damage location uses stiffness matrix of the structural system. The modification of stiffness matrix, however, has complicated procedures to identify structural. system in the basis of finite element model and has too many degree of freedom to calculate. Identification of changes of flexibility of structure can offer damage information immediately and simple procedure can employ real time continuous monitoring system. To identify changes of the flexibility, vibration mode shapes and natural frequencies are usually used. In this paper, a procedure for damage location in continuous girder bridges using vibration data is described. The effectiveness and sensitivity of the presented method to measurement errors in mode shapes and natural frequencies are investigated using analytical results from finite element models. It is shown that the errors in the first mode shape and first natural frequency demonstrate much larger influence than those in the higher mode shapes and modal frequencies.

• 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.49 no.2
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• pp.183-202
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• 2014

A new method of multiple damage detection in beam like structures is introduced. The mode shapes of both healthy and damaged structures are used in damage detection process (DDP). Multiple Damage Localization Index Based on Mode Shapes (MDLIBMS) is presented as a criterion in detecting damaged elements. A finite element modeling of structures is used to calculate the mode shapes parameters. The main advantages of the proposed method are its simplicity, flexibility on the number of elements and so the accuracy of the damage(s) position(s), sensitivity to small damage extend, capability in prediction of required number of mode shapes and low sensitivity to noisy data. In fact, because of differential and comparative form of MDLIBMS, using noise polluted data doesn't have major effect on the results. This makes the proposed method a powerful one in damage detection according to measured mode shape data. Because of its flexibility, damage detection process in multi span bridge girders with non-prismatic sections can be done by this method. Numerical simulations used to demonstrate these advantages.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.155-158
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• 2005

Damage and fracture of concrete is characterized as the degradation of strength and stiffness. There can be modeled as the so-called homogenized crack model which can overcome the mesh sensitivity. But the plasticity and damage modeling for damage behavior before the fracture of concrete should be combined with the crack model. In this study, a damage function and an unified hardening-softening function are applied to the homogenized crack model to develope a 3-dimensional FEM program for nonlinear damage and fracture analysis of concrete. The comparison of numerical results and experimental data show that the combined modeling in this study can simulate the damage and fracture of concrete without the mesh-sensitivity. It is also shown that the behavior of the so-called Engineering Cementitious Composite(ECC) characterized by strain-hardening and multiple cracks can be well simulated using the modeling.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.871-897
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• 2015

This paper presents a novel method based on sensitivity of structural response for identifying both the system parameters and input excitation force of a bridge. This method, referred to as "Adjoint Variable Method", is a sensitivity-based finite element model updating method. The computational cost of sensitivity analyses is the main concern associated with damage detection by these methods. The main advantage of proposed method is inclusion of an analytical method to augment the accuracy and speed of the solution. The reliable performance of the method to precisely indentify the location and intensity of all types of predetermined single, multiple and random damages over the whole domain of moving vehicle speed is shown. A comparison study is also carried out to demonstrate the relative effectiveness and upgraded performance of the proposed method in comparison to the similar ordinary sensitivity analysis methods. Moreover, various sources of error including the effects of noise and primary errors on the numerical stability of the proposed method are discussed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.169-181
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• 2020

Sensor placement is a crucial aspect of bridge health monitoring (BHM) dedicated to accurately estimate and locate structural damages. In addressing this goal, a sensor placement framework based on the deflection influence line (DIL) analysis is here proposed, for the optimal design of damage detection-oriented BHM system. In order to improve damage detection accuracy, we explore the change of global stiffness matrix, damage coefficient matrix and DIL vector caused by structural damage, and thus develop a novel sensor placement framework based on the Fisher information matrix. Our approach seeks to determine the contribution of each sensing node to damage detection, and adopts a distance correction coefficient to eliminate the information redundancy among sensors. The proposed damage detection-oriented optimal sensor placement (OSP) method is verified by two examples: (1) a numerically simulated three-span continuous beam, and (2) the Pinghu bridge which has existing real damage conditions. These two examples verify the performance of the distance corrected damage sensitivity of influence line (DSIL) method in significantly higher contribution to damage detection and lower information redundancy, and demonstrate the proposed OSP framework can be potentially employed in BHM practices.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.127-136
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• 2002

This papers presents a practical damage detection algorithm based on damage index method that accurately assesses both the location and severity of the localized detriment in a bridge structure using only limited mode shapes. In the algorithm, the ratio of the modal vector sensitivity of an undamaged structure to that of a damaged structure is used as an indicator of damage. However, a difficulty arises when the damaged element is located at a node of mode where the amplitude of medal vector is close to zero, leading the singularity of the ratio (i.e., division-by-zero). This singularity problem is overcome by introducing a parameter denoted a sensitivity filter, a function of mode shape of the structure, in modal vector sensitivity. Using this concept, an improvement can be considerably achieved in the estimation of both degree of severity and location of damage. To verify the proposed algorithm, its numerical implementations are conducted for a simply supported beam and a 2-span continuous beam.

• 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.