This article presents a signal-based seismic structural health monitoring technique for damage detection and evaluating damage severity of a multi-story frame subjected to an earthquake event. As a case study, this article is focused on IASC–ASCE benchmark problem to provide the possibility for side-by-side comparison. First, three signal processing techniques including empirical mode decomposition, Hilbert vibration decomposition, and local mean decomposition, categorized as instantaneous time–frequency methods, have been compared to find a method with the best resolution in extracting frequency responses. Time-varying single degree of freedom and multiple degree of freedom models are used since real vibration signals are nonstationary and nonlinear in nature. Based on the results, empirical mode decomposition has proved to outperform than the others. Second, empirical mode decomposition is used to extract the acceleration response of the sensors. Next, a two-stage artificial neural network is used to classify damage patterns. The first artificial neural network identifies location and severity of damage and the second one calculates the severity of damage for the entire structure. IASC–ASCE benchmark problem is used to validate the proposed procedure. By taking advantage of signal processing and artificial intelligence techniques, damage detection of structures was successfully carried out in three levels including damage occurrence, damage severity, and the location of damage.

With the help of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods, it is possible to identify the occurrence of damage at its early stages and prevent fatality and financial damages. Great advances in signal processing methods in combination with Machine learning tools have led to better achieve this goal. In the present paper, the two major techniques, that is, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) are combined with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) through processing raw acceleration responses measured on a scaled jacket type offshore platform which was constructed and tested as a benchmark structure at K.N. Toosi University of Technology. In this way, ANN was trained by the signals obtained from EMD and DWT for three different conditions of the jacket platform to determine the relative damage severity. The envelope of the obtained signal’s energy (ENV) as an appropriate damage index was used to determine the damage location. The results of the application of this procedure on the case study indicated that DWT, compared to EMD, is a more reliable signal processing method in damage detection due to better noise reduction.

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A novel approach to damage detection based on dispersion analysis and signal processing methods is described. The proposed method was used on a scaled experimental model of a jacket-type offshore platform. A forced vibration test was conducted on the platform to acquire the acceleration signals. The frequency spectrum of the first intrinsic mode function of the recorded signals was obtained by the Hilbert transform (HT); it was found that damage engendered dispersion in the extracted frequencies. A novel damage index, capable of accurate damage detection and based on the Mahalanobis distance dispersion of the HT frequency spectrum was thus developed. The results of this work show that the proposed index can determine the location and severity of damage with acceptable accuracy.