Identification of Localized Structural Damage from Highly Incomplete Modal Information: Theory and Experiments

Abstract

The paper presents a methodology for identification of localized structural damage using highly incomplete modal information, such as a subset of modal frequencies. The proposed methodology is based on linearized modal sensitivities and ℓ1-norm minimization of the algebraic difference between identified frequencies in damaged and undamaged states. The method is verified using stochastic simulations and validated using a series of laboratory experiments in which the number of potentially damaged elements is significantly larger than the number of identified modal frequencies.