Detection of Damage Location Using A Novel Substructure-based Frequency Response Function Approach With A Wireless Sensing System

This paper intends to detect the damage locations for building structures under an earthquake excitation using a novel substructure-based FRF approach with a damage location index (SubFRFDI). An Imote2.NET-based wireless structural health monitoring system was developed and employed in the experimental studies for the sake of deployment flexibility, low maintenance cost, low power consumption, self-organization capability, and wireless communication capability. The feasibility of the proposed approach for damage detection was examined using the numerical response of a six-storey shear plane frame structure subjected to a base excitation. The results demonstrate that the SubFRFDI can be successfully used to identify the damage of different levels at a single site or multiple sites. The SubFRFDI is independent of the responses to various input earthquake excitations. Even with the addition of noises, the SubFRFDI still functions well. The feasibility and robustness of the proposed Imote2.NET-based wireless structural health monitoring system were assessed using a 1/8-scale three-storey steel-frame model. Following this, the proposed SubFRFDI was further applied to identifying the damage locations in a 1/4-scale six-storey steel structure with the proposed Imote2.NET-based wireless monitoring system. It was confirmed experimentally that good data transportation quality can be achieved via reliable data transmission and sensing protocol in identifying the structural dynamic properties, and the proposed SubFRFDI can be used to identify the damage locations effectively.