Statistical damage identification method based on dynamic response sensitivity

The traditional deterministic damage detection method is based on the assumption that the measured data and the finite element model are accurate. However, in real situation, there are many uncertainties in the damage identification procedure such as the errors of the finite element model and the measurement noise. Since the uncertainties inevitably exist in the finite element models and measured data, the statistic method which considers the uncertainty has wide practical application. This paper proposes a statistical damage identification method based on dynamic response sensitivity in state-space domain. Considering the noise of the finite element model and measured acceleration response, the statistical variations of the damaged finite element model are derived with perturbation method which is based on a Taylor series expansion of the response vector and verified by Monte Carlo technique. Afterward, the probability of damage existence for each structural element is estimated using the statistical characteristic of the identified structural parameters. A numerical simply supported beam under the moving load is applied to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed statistical method.