A global method for structural damage detection Part I: Theory and computational aspects

Using the concept of strain energy change, due to damage at the elementlevel, a new structural damage detection method is developed. the proposed methodemploys either the static or dynamic response of a structure and simultaneously localizesand quanties multiple damages. it requires only the stiness and mass matrices of thebaseline structure and a few measured responses of the current structure to nd the exactlocation and severity of the damage. a numerical example was used to investigate thebehavior of the algorithm. it is shown that those mode shapes and static loadings whichyield a uniform distribution of strain energy in elements predict the location and magnitudeof damage with more accuracy. some higher mode shapes which might induce signicantlevels of strain energy in some elements are not always reliable. finally, it is shown that inorder to obtain reliable results, the number of equations (mode shapes or static loadings)must be greater than the number of predicted damaged elements.