Structural Damage Identification Based on Model Updating

This paper presents a new method for structural damage identification based on the finite element (FE) model updating techniques. First, an objective function is defined as minimizing the sum of differences between the experimental and analytical modal data (natural frequencies and mode shapes), which is set as a nonlinear least-squares problem with bound-constrains. The trust-region approach is then used to solve the minimization problem in order to make this optimization process more robust and reliable. In addition, the expansion and weighting of the original objective function are investigated so that the presented method can be well applied into the damage identification of more real structures. Finally, a numerical simulation model of two-story portal frame structure is adopted to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed technique when both the single and multiple damage cases are set up in the model. Some important issues are also discussed in this paper. The illustrated results show that the single and multiple damages on the two-story portal frame structure can be well identified by the proposed method.