A Model-Based Localized Damage Detection in Structural Health Monitoring

A structural damage detection method is presented, labeled as Partitioned Damage Detection (PDD) method, which employs the recently developed displacement-only partitioned (DP) equations. The proposed PDD method starts with experimentally or simulation-generated modes and mode shapes. Second, it transforms the conventional assembled flexibility into DP-based partitioned flexibility. Third, the free-free forms of substructural flexibility is extracted from the DP-based flexibility. Fourth, Damage Indicator (DI) for each substructures are computed by the ratio of the traces of the free-free healthy and damaged substructural flexibilities. Numerical simulation and experiments show that the proposed PDD method correctly identifies both the damage location and damage levels for determinate structures. For indeterminate structures, the proposed PDD method correctly identifies the damage locations, while underestimating damage levels. A compensation scheme is developed for improving damage levels, which results in a reliable estimation of both damage locations and damage levels.