Damage localisation and severity evaluation of a beam-like timber structure based on modal strain energy and flexibility approaches

Abstract

Timber bridges are often exposed to harsh environmental conditions, which, over time, can lead to deterioration resulting from decay, insect attack, weathering, and mechanical damage. In turn, this deterioration may lead to a loss of structural integrity that is detrimental to the structure and its users. Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques provide effective means for assessment of current structural integrity status of given structures. As a global NDE technique, vibration-based damage identification techniques have received increasing attention for structural damage evaluation. Among them, there is a popular and promising damage identification method called the damage index method based on calculating the change of modal strain energy before and after damage. Despite its popularity, however, a systematic investigation on its capability and limitations in locating and quantifying damage is yet to be reported, especially for structures suffering multiple damage. In this paper, after reviewing the current NDE methods, the focus was set on the vibration-based NDE methods, in particular the damage index method. The investigation was based on finite element analysis (FEA) results of a timber beam by which the capability and limitation of the damage index was fully explored. As a result of the investigation, a new hybrid algorithm combining modified damage index (MDI) and change in flexibility algorithms is proposed for damage localisation and severity evaluation. The numerical results indicate that the proposed hybrid algorithms based on MDI method and flexibility have clear advantages in detecting damage locations and evaluating damage severities, especially for multiple damage cases.