Damage detection by the distribution of predicted constraint forces

Abstract

Damage causes the deterioration of dynamic and static performance of intact structures. Regarding the measured static displacement or modal displacement data as constraints for describing damaged responses, this study derives analytical equations to estimate constraint forces in the satisfaction of constraints. The constraint forces are forces required for describing the flexural shape of the damaged beam under static and dynamic loadings. Based on the concept that the occurrence of damage causes the change of force mechanism, this work proposes an analytical method to detect damage from the distribution of constraint forces. When compared to the displacement curvature and the frequency response function (FRF) curvature methods using 2% noise, the results have shown that the proposed method is less sensitive to noise and is more effective in detecting multiple damaged areas in the beam of short span length and their intensity at low levels of damage.