Damage Identification for Shear-Type Structures Using the Change of Generalized Shear Energy

Abstract

Structural damage identification has become an important topic in the field of civil engineering in recent years. The shear-type structure, such as shear frame structure, is a common type used in civil engineering. In this paper, a damage identification method based on the change of generalized shear energy is proposed for shear-type structures. The main steps of the proposed method are as follows. Firstly, the element stiffness matrix in the structural finite element model is decomposed to obtain the elementary shear force vector. Secondly, the elementary generalized shear energy is calculated by the dot product of the vibration mode shape vector and the elementary shear force vector. Thirdly, structural damage locations can be determined by the changes of elementary generalized shear energy. Finally, more accurate damage localization and quantification are achieved by solving the mode shape sensitivity equation. A 20-storey numerical example and a three-storey experimental model are used to demonstrate the proposed damage identification algorithm. From the numerical and experimental results, it was found that the proposed approach can accurately identify the location and extent of the damage in the shear structures even if the data contain noise. It has been shown that the presented algorithm may be useful in the damage identification of shear-type structures.