Damage Detection in a Girder Bridge by Artificial Neural Network Technique

Abstract

: Vibration-based damage identification (VBDI) techniques rely on the fact that damage in a structure reduces its stiffness and alters its global vibration characteristics. Measurement of changes in the vibration characteristics can therefore be used to determine the damage in the structure. Although VBDI offers several advantages, most of the available damage identification algorithms fail when applied to practical structures due to the effect of measurement errors, need to use incomplete mode shapes, mode truncation, and the nonunique nature of the solutions. This article presents a new robust two-step algorithm that uses the modal energy-based damage index to locate the damage and an artificial neural network technique to determine the magnitude of damage. The proposed algorithm is applied to detect simulated damage in a finite element model of a girder and a similar model of a real bridge named Crowchild Bridge located in Alberta, Canada. The results show that the proposed algorithm is quite effective in identifying the location and magnitude of damage, even in the presence of measurement errors in the input data.