• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.411-425
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• 2014

This paper presents the processing of nonlinear features associated with a damage event by quadratic time-frequency distributions for damage identification in a frame structure. A time-frequency distribution is a function which distributes the total energy of a signal at a particular time and frequency point. As the occurrence of damage often gives rise to non-stationary, nonlinear structural behavior, simultaneous representation of the dynamic response in the time-frequency plane offers valuable insight for damage detection. The applicability of the bilinear time-frequency distributions of the Cohen class is examined for the damage assessment of a frame structure from the simulated acceleration data. It is shown that the changes in instantaneous energy of the dynamic response could be a good damage indicator. Presence and location of damage can be identified using Choi-Williams distribution when damping is ignored. However, in the presence of damping the Page distribution is more effective and offers better readability for structural damage detection.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2007

Once assessment of material failure characteristics is captured precisely in a unified way, it can bedirectly incorporated into the structural failure assessment under various loading environments, based on the theoretical backgrounds so called Local Approach to Fracture. The aim of this study is to develop a numerical fatigue test method by continuum damage mechanics applicable for the assessment of structural integrity throughout crack initiation and structural failure based on the Local Approach to Fracture. The generalized elasto-visco-plastic constitutive equation, which can consider the internal damage evolution behavior, is developed and employed in the 3-D FEA code in order to numerically evaluate the material and/or structural responses. Explicit information of the relationships between the mechanical properties and material constants, which are required for the mechanical constitutive and damage evolution equations for each material, are implemented in numerical fatigue test method. The material constants selected from constitutive equations are used directly in the failure assessment of material and/or structures. The performance of the developed system has been evaluated with assessing the S-N diagram of stainless steel materials.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.699-715
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• 2015

A modal parameter based damage sensitive feature (DSF) is defined to mimic the relative change in any diagonal element of the stiffness matrix of a model of a structure. The damage assessment is performed in a statistical pattern recognition framework using empirical complementary cumulative distribution functions (ECCDFs) of the DSFs extracted from measured operational vibration response data. Methods are discussed to perform probabilistic structural health assessment with respect to the following questions: (a) "Is there a change in the current state of the structure compared to the baseline state?", (b) "Does the change indicate a localized stiffness reduction or increase?", with the latter representing a situation of retrofitting operations, and (c) "What is the severity of the change in a probabilistic sense?". To identify a range of normal structural variations due to environmental and operational conditions, lower and upper bound ECCDFs are used to define the baseline structural state. Such an approach attempts to decouple "non-damage" related variations from damage induced changes, and account for the unknown environmental/operational conditions of the current state. The damage assessment procedure is discussed using numerical simulations of ambient vibration testing of a bridge deck system, as well as shake table experimental data from a 4-story steel frame.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.227-234
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• 2008

The number of marine accidents have been decreased since various equipments for navigation control have been introduced to the marine vessels. However, disastrous marine accidents such as ship collisions are occurred more frequently. Therefore, IMO(International Maritime Organization) is enforcing the design requirement of structural strength for marine vessel. Also EU countries are developing new design methodologies and design tools to suggest the design guidance which can minimize the damage of commercial vessels in case of marine collision accidents. In this study, an integrated design system for the safety assessment has been presented to enhance the safety of damaged ships in marine collision accidents. The architecture of system is described by use-cases and IDEF functional analysis. Then an integrated system for safety assessment of damaged ship which is considering both damage stability and structural safety has been developed to support the ship design in early stage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.291-307
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• 2010

A specific type of structural damage that would benefit from remote sensing is discussed and a solution is suggested.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.765-779
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• 2009

Quantitative condition assessment of structures has been traditionally using proof load test leading to an indication of the load-carrying capacity. Alternative approaches using ultrasonic, dynamics etc. are based on the unloaded state of the structure and anomalies may not be fully mobilized in the load resisting path and thus their effects are not fully included in the measured responses. This paper studies the effect of the load carried by a reinforced concrete beam on the assessment result of the crack damage. This assessment can only be performed with an approach based on static measurement. The crack damage is modelled as a crack zone over an area of high tensile stress of the member, and it is represented by a damage function for the simulation study. An existing nonlinear optimization algorithm is adopted. The identified damage extent from a selected high level load and a low load level are compared, and it is concluded that accurate assessment can only be obtained at a load level close to the one that creates the damage.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.187-206
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• 2011

This paper uses dynamic computer simulation techniques to develop and apply a multi-criteria procedure using non-destructive vibration-based parameters for damage assessment in truss bridges. In addition to changes in natural frequencies, this procedure incorporates two parameters, namely the modal flexibility and the modal strain energy. Using the numerically simulated modal data obtained through finite element analysis of the healthy and damaged bridge models, algorithms based on modal flexibility and modal strain energy changes before and after damage are obtained and used as the indices for the assessment of structural health state. The application of the two proposed parameters to truss-type structures is limited in the literature. The proposed multi-criteria based damage assessment procedure is therefore developed and applied to truss bridges. The application of the approach is demonstrated through numerical simulation studies of a single-span simply supported truss bridge with eight damage scenarios corresponding to different types of deck and truss damage. Results show that the proposed multi-criteria method is effective in damage assessment in this type of bridge superstructure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 1998

Structural damage is used to be modeled through reductions in the stiffness of structural elements for the purpose of damage estimation of structural system. In this study, the concept of joint damage is employed for more realistic damage assessment of a steel structure. The joint damage is estimated damage based on the mode shape informations using neural networks, The beam-to-column connection in a steel frame structure is represented by a rotational spring at the fixed end of a beam element. The severity of joint damage is defined as the reduction ratio of the connection stiffness with respect to the value of the intact joint. The concept of the substructural identification is used for the localized damage assessment in a large structure. The feasibility of the proposed method is examined using an example with simulated data. It has been found that the joint damages can be reasonably estimated for the case with the measurements of the mode vectors subjected to noise.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.733-749
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• 2020

This study presents a computer vision-based approach for representing time evolution of structural damages leveraging a database of inspection images. Spatially incoherent but temporally sorted archival images captured by robotic cameras are exploited to represent the damage evolution over a long period of time. An access to a sequence of time-stamped inspection data recording the damage growth dynamics is premised to this end. Identification of a structural defect in the most recent inspection data set triggers an exhaustive search into the images collected during the previous inspections looking for correspondences based on spatial proximity. This is followed by a view synthesis from multiple candidate images resulting in a single reconstruction for each inspection round. Cracks on concrete surface are used as a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. Once the chronology is established, the damage severity is quantified at various levels of time scale documenting its progression through time. The proposed scheme enables the prediction of damage severity at a future point in time providing a scope for preemptive measures against imminent structural failure. On the whole, it is believed that the present study will immensely benefit the structural inspectors by introducing the time dimension into the autonomous condition assessment pipeline.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.621-635
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• 2023

The assessment of structural condition is a crucial process for evaluating its usability and determining the diagnostic cycle. The currently employed manpower-based methods suffer from issues related to safety, efficiency, and objectivity. To address these concerns, research based on deep learning using images is being conducted. However, acquiring structural damage data is challenging, making it difficult to construct a substantial amount of training data, thus limiting the effectiveness of deep learning-based condition assessment. In this study, we propose a foundation model-based 2-step structural damage analysis to overcome the lack of training data in image-based structural condition assessments. We subdivided the elements of structural condition assessment into instantiation and quantification. In the quantification step, we applied a foundation model for image segmentation. Our method demonstrated a 10%-point increase in mean intersection over union compared to conventional image segmentation techniques, with a notable 40%-point improvement in the case of rebar exposure. We anticipate that our proposed approach will enhance performance in domains where acquiring training data is challenging.