Empirical method for structural damage location using dynamic analysis

Abstract This paper presents the use of numerical model techniques for identification and damage location adopting the Modal Curvature Difference (MCD) method as reference for the analysis of a simply supported concrete structure. Then, an empirical formulation to detect damages in this structure is proposed. In this method, called Acceleration Summation Difference (ASD), the difference of acceleration amplitude between intact and damaged structures are calculated for concrete plates simply supported on rubber bearings. During the analyses, the finite element models were developed using SAP2000® software. The results obtained depicted that it is possible to determine the approximate position of one or more damages in the structure, with some restrictions, and the proposed ASD method presented good correlation to localize the position of single or multiple damages.