Improved Modal Strain Energy Decomposition Method for damage detection of offshore platforms using data of sensors above the water level

Abstract Offshore structures usually are implemented in harsh environmental conditions which make the structures disposed to different failures. Negligible failures may lead to catastrophic ones. To prevent potential catastrophic failure, development of robust damage detection methods for offshore structures is necessary. Damages change structure's dynamic characteristics. Among different dynamic characteristics, modal frequencies and mode shapes are utilized more often. Due to various problems regarding damage detection methods for offshore structures such as sensor installation and data acquisition in water, damage detection methods using limited sensors seems very vital. In this paper, a novel method called Improved Modal Strain Energy Decomposition Method (IMSEDM) is developed to detect structural damage of jacket-type offshore platforms using a limited number of sensors just above the water. The proposed method has two main contributions. The first is simultaneous use of both modal frequencies and mode shapes which make damage detection more accurate. The second is decomposition of modal strain energy into axial and bending. IMSEDM locates damaged elements by considering the impacts of the damage on axial and bending modal strain energy. The method is evaluated using an experimental jacket type offshore platform. The results confirm that IMSEDM can effectively detect damages with incomplete data.