Clustering Elements of Truss Structures for Damage Identification by CBO

The number of structural elements plays a significant role in detecting damage location and severity; such methods have sometimes failed to provide correct solutions due to the entrapment of damage detection algorithms in the local optimum. To resolve this problem, this study proposed the simultaneous use of mathematical and statistical methods to narrow down the search space. To this end, a two-step damage detection method was proposed. In the first step, the structural elements were initially divided into different clusters using the k-means method. Subsequently, the possibly damaged elements of each cluster were identified. In the second step, the elements selected in the first step were placed in a new set, and a process was applied to identify their respective damage location and severity. Thus, the proposed method reduced the search space as well as the possibility of entrapment in the local optimum. Other advantages of the proposed method include the use of fewer dynamic properties. Accordingly, by narrowing down the search space and the dimensions of the system for governing equations, the proposed method could significantly increase the chance of obtaining favorable results in structures with many elements and those with few vibration modes. A meta-heuristic method, called the colliding bodies optimization (CBO), was used in the proposed damage detection optimization algorithm. The optimization problem was based on the modal strain energy equations. According to the results, the proposed method was able to detect the location and severity of damage, even at its slightest percentage.