Damage Detection Method for Bridge Structures Using Hilbert-Huang Transform Technique

Abstract

A recently developed Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) technique is applied to the detection of the damage locations of bridge structures. The HHT may be used to identify the locations of damages which exhibit nonlinear and non-stationary behavior, since the instantaneous frequency characteristics of the measured signal can be analyzed by the HHT. Numerical simulations were conducted on two bridge systems with damages using controlled excitations with sweeping frequency. Nonlinear plastic model using a gap element is employed to model the behavior of the cracked elements in the numerical simulations. The results indicate that the HHT method can reasonably identify the damage locations based on a limited number of acceleration sensors. Experimental study has been also carried out on a steel frame to confirm the applicability of the HHT to detect a structural connection with loosened bolts. 123(4), 706-711

A comprehensive review on health monitoring of joints in steel structures

“…Shim et al developed the HHT approach for damage detection in bridge structures. This technique demonstrated robustness and was successfully applied to identify loosened bolts in a steel frame structure [209]. Kunwar et al also employed the HHT technique to detect damage in a bridge model subjected to transient vibration loads [210].…”

Early Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures using Hilbert-Huang Transform and Genetic Algorithm

“…However, some researchers [6,20] have shown that structural modal parameters are not sensitive to tiny structural damage, and therefore this method may not be suitable to detect the initial damage in various engineering structures. Some kinds of structural damage indexes based on HHT are extracted by Zhang et al [21] and Shim et al [22]. In this study, in order to extract the structural damage information from its dynamic response signals, the signal is first decomposed into multiple IMFs using HHT.…”