Damage Identification of Civil Structures Using Modal Kinetic Energy Change Approach

Abstract

Vibration based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has a seasoned commitment in assessing the performance of structures continuously and detecting damage in an early stage which minimizes chances of structural failures and cost of maintenance. However, SHM is still an emerging branch of engineering and has many challenges yet to be resolved before it can be employed widely in various structures and conditions. This study presents a new Modal Kinetic Energy (MKE) based approach to identify and assess damage in structures. A new damage sensitivity parameter has been developed based on modal kinetic energy change concept. The sensitivity matrix thus developed is applied on damage quantification procedure. Finally, some numerical studies are conducted on a simply supported beam to confirm its robustness under various test conditions. The simulation results revealed that the proposed approach can successfully detect and estimate single and multiple damage even in noise contaminated environment.