Free-Interface Modal Synthesis Based Substructural Damage Detection Method

Free-interface modal synthesis method is applied to civil structure, and a substructure method is proposed by introducing the method into global sensitivity method. The substructure expression of the derivatives of eigenvalues and eigenvectors with respect to elemental parameters is obtained. The accuracy of the application of free-interface modal synthesis method is evaluated with different retained modes in substructure, and then the effectiveness of the proposed substructure sensitivity method is illustrated through an 11-storey building under both single- and multidamage cases. Both the damage locations and the extent can be effectively identified. By comparing it with the identical results of global sensitivity method, the proposed method can be faster in detecting the damage location and more stable under multidamage cases. Since this substructure sensitivity method only needs to update sensitivity matrix in the substructure with relative small number of DOFs, it may save much computation effort and become more efficient.