Techno Press
Techno Press

Structural Engineering and Mechanics
  Volume 39, Number 6, September25 2011 , pages 751-765
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/sem.2011.39.6.751
 


Detection of a concentrated damage in a parabolic arch by measured static displacements
Annalisa Greco and Annamaria Pau

 
Abstract
    The present paper deals with the identification of a concentrated damage in an elastic parabolic arch through the minimization of an objective function which measures the differences between numerical and experimental values of static displacements. The damage consists in a notch that reduces the height of the cross section at a given abscissa and therefore causes a variation in the flexural stiffness of the structure. The analytical values of static displacements due to applied loads are calculated by means of the principle of virtual work for both the undamaged and damaged arch. First, pseudo-experimental data are used to study the inverse problem and investigate whether a unique solution can occur or not. Various damage intensities are considered to assess the reliability of the identification procedure. Then, the identification procedure is applied to an experimental case, where displacements are measured on a prototype arch. The identified values of damage parameters, i.e., location and intensity, are compared to those obtained by means of a dynamic identification technique performed on the same structure.
 
Key Words
    damage identification; inverse problems; arches; experimental static displacements
 
Address
Annalisa Greco: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Catania, v.le A.Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
Annamaria Pau: Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, La Sapienza University of Rome, via A. Gramsci 53, 00197 Roma, Italy
 

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