Structural Damage Identification in Vehicle-Bridge System Based on Measured Dynamic Response

[[abstract]]In the present study, a detailed vehicle–bridge dynamic interaction model is established, and the bridge is modeled as laminated composite beams which are discretized as finite beam elements. The vehicle-induced responses of the bridge in the damaged state are used as input data for damage identification and the response sensitivities with respect to the damage indices of the elements are calculated to establish the sensitivity matrix. Based on the error between the measured response and the computed one as a minimization criterion, the sensitivity equation is solved by the least-squares method, and then the damage is located and quantified with the finite element model updating technique. It can be concluded that only one measurement point is required to detect the damage of the bridge, and location of the measurement point does not significantly affect the identification result. Furthermore, it is noted that the absolute damage of any beam element is well identified by using either the displacement response, velocity response or acceleration response