Damage localization on Reinforced Concrete Structures

It is known that the occurrence of structural damage, for any kind of structure, it is able to changes its dynamic characteristics over time. Generally, the main parameters conditioned by this problem are periods of vibration, damping factors and mode shapes. Several authors showed that also the variations of the modal curvature are strictly related to the damage occurred on a structure. Moreover, using the mode curvature as a control parameter it is also possible to localize where the damage occurred on the structure. In order to analyze the nonlinear behaviour of a general structure, and localize a possible damage, we propose a band-variable filter based on the Stockwell Transform. This paper shows through many examples as comparing mode shapes and the related curvature variations over time it is possible to easily identify the damage and also localize it on the structure