Identification of Structural Damage in Bridges Using High-Frequency Vibrational Responses

• Main Author: Ivana Mekjavić
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2015-01-01
• Series: Shock and Vibration
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/906062

The present research aims to develop an effective and applicable structural damage detection method. A damage identification approach using only the changes of measured natural frequencies is presented. The structural damage model is assumed to be associated with a reduction of a contribution to the element stiffness matrix equivalent to a scalar reduction of the material modulus. The computational technique used to identify the damage from the measured data is described. The performance of the proposed technique on numerically simulated real concrete girder bridge is evaluated using imposed damage scenarios. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method by employing experimental measured natural frequencies this technique is applied for the first time to a simply supported reinforced concrete beam statically loaded incrementally to failure. The results of the damage identification procedure show that the proposed method can accurately locate the damage and predict the extent of the damage using high-frequency (here beyond the 4th order) vibrational responses.