Structural damage detection using ARMAX time series models and cepstral distances

Abstract

A novel damage detection algorithm for structural health monitoring using time series model is presented. The proposed algorithm uses output-only acceleration time series obtained from sensors on the structure which are fitted using Auto-regressive moving-average with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) model. The algorithm uses Cepstral distances between the ARMAX models of decorrelated data obtained from healthy and any other current condition of the structure as the damage indicator. A numerical model of a simply supported beam with variations due to temperature and operating conditions along with measurement noise is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed damage diagnostic technique using the ARMAX time series models and their Cepstral distances with novelty indices. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated using the benchmark data of the 8-DOF system made available to public by the Engineering Institute of LANL and the simulated vibration data obtained from the FEM model of IASC-ASCE 12-DOF steel frame. The results of the studies indicate that the proposed algorithm is robust in identifying the damage from the acceleration data contaminated with noise under varied environmental and operational conditions.