Identification of Damage in Cantilever Retaining Wall Based on Flexibility-difference Mean Curvature

Abstract

To solve the problem of identification of damage in a cantilever retaining wall, a damage identification method for such a wall, based on the flexibility-difference mean curvature, is proposed. The concept of mean curvature in differential geometry is introduced to calculate the flexibility-difference mean curvature. First, the flexibility difference matrix is calculated using the change in the modal flexibility matrix of the before and after damage in the retaining wall, and each column average value of the flexibility difference matrix is used as an element of the modal flexibility-difference column vector. Then, the flexibility-difference mean curvature (FDMC) is obtained using the central difference method, as a new index of damage identification. The result of a numerical simulation of the cantilever retaining wall indicates that (1) the damage location in a retaining wall, single damage or multiple damages, can be detected accurately using FDMC and (2) the unit damage extent can be accurately detected via the relation between the damage extent and the index FDMC with high precision. Further, the effectiveness and advantages of FDMC as compared to the Gauss curvature modal difference are proven.