Structural damage localization and quantification using static test data

A static-based detection method is proposed in this study to provide an insight to the location and extent of structural damage. The proposed method makes use of the new flexibility disassembly technique and approaches the damage location and extent problem in a decoupled fashion. First, a scheme is developed to determine the damage location by calculating a damage localization vector, which is derived from the static response equation. With location determined, the corresponding damage extent can be easily calculated only by simple arithmetic operations. For selecting the loading location, a simple approach is presented to determine the static load that can activate all parts of a structure to have deformations. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated by three numerical examples. Results show that the method is simple and effective for structural damage detection.