Structural Damage Diagnosis Using Interstory Drift–Based Acceleration Feedback with Test Validation

Abstract

This study presents a numerical structural damage detection method using interstory drift–based structural acceleration measurements in the time domain. The coupling effect of the damage at different locations in the multiple-degree-of-freedom building system is eliminated by projecting the measured accelerations onto specific independent subspaces. The damage in a region will only affect the output of the designed monitor observing the substructure within the region. The severity of the damage is estimated numerically using a model-based prediction curve of stiffness change. Results obtained by the present numerical simulations for the illustrative examples are validated by experimental investigations using a 3-story aluminum frame structure and a 12-story concrete frame structure, and the numerical simulation results are compared with some representative experimental data with favorable correlations. Incorporation of the incomplete measurement, different structural materials, and different excitations into the method are studied and discussed.