Detection and Quantification of Structural Damage of a Beam-Like Structure Using Natural Frequencies

Need for developing efficient non-destructive damage detection procedures for civil engineering structures is growing rapidly. This paper presents a methodology for detection and quantification of structural damage using modal information obtained from transfer matrix technique. Vibration characteristics of beam-like structure have been determined using the computer program developed based on the formulations presented in the paper. It has been noted from reported literature that detection and quantification of damage using mode shape information is difficult and further, extraction of mode shape information has practical difficulties and limitations. Hence, a methodology for detection and quantification of damage in structure using tranfer matrix technique based on the changes in the natural frequencies has been developed. With an assumption of damage at a particular segment of the beam-like structure, an iterative procedure has been formulated to converge the calculated and measured frequencies by adjusting flexural rigidity of elements and then, the intersections are used for detection and quantification of damage. Eventhough the developed methodology is iterative, computational effort is reduced considerably by using transfer matrix technique. It is observed that the methodology is capable of predicting the location and magnitude of damage quite accurately