Estimation of virtual masses for structural damage identification

Adding a virtual mass is an effective method for damage identification. It can be used to obtain a large amount of information about structural response and dynamics, thereby improving the sensitivity to local damage. In the current research approaches, the virtual mass is determined first, and then the modal characteristics of the virtually modified structure are identified. This requires a wide frequency band excitation; otherwise the crucial modes of the modified structure might be out of the band, which would negatively influence the modal analysis and damage identification. This paper proposes a method that first determines the target frequency and then estimates the corresponding value of the additional virtual mass. The target frequency refers to the desired value of the natural frequency after the virtual mass has been added to the structure. The virtual masses are estimated by tuning the frequency response peaks to the target frequencies. First, two virtual mass estimation methods are proposed. One is to directly calculate the virtual mass, using the frequency-domain response at the target frequency point only, whereas the second method estimates the mass using a least-squares fit based on the frequency-domain response around the target frequency. Both proposed methods utilize merely a small part of the frequency domain. Therefore, an impulse, a simple harmonic, or a narrow spectral excitation can be used for damage identification. Finally, a numerical simulation of a simply supported beam and experiments of a frame structure and a truss structure are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.