Damage localization under ambient vibration using changes in flexibility

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Damage localization under ambient vibration using changes in flexibility

Yong Gao (高勇)¹ and B.F. Spencer, Jr. (苏磐石)²

Department of Civil Engineering & Geological Science, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Matthews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Abstract: In recent years, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has emerged as a new research area in civil engineering. Most existing health monitoring methodologies require direct measurement of input excitation for implementation. However, in many cases, there is no easy way to measure these inputs – or alternatively to externally excite the structure. Therefore, SHM methods based on ambient vibration have become important in civil engineering. In this paper, an approach is proposed based on the Damage Location Vector (DLV) method to handle the ambient vibration case. Here, this flexibility-matrix-based damage localization method is combined with a modal expansion technique to eliminate the need to measure the input excitation. As a by-product of this approach, in addition to determining the location of the damage, an estimate of the damage extent also can be determined. Finally, a numerical example analyzing a truss structure with limited sensors and noisy measurement is provided to verify the efficacy of the proposed approach.

Keywords: flexibility matrix; damage location vector method; modal expansion; natural excitation technique; eigenvalue realization algorithm.

Copyright© 2009 IEM. Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as described below, without written permission from the Publisher. Copying of articles is not permitted except for personal and internal use, to the extent permitted by national copyright law, or under the terms of a license issued by the National Reproduction Rights Organization of China.