Vibration based damage detection in a scaled reinforced concrete building by FE model updating

The traditional destructive tests in damage detection require high cost, long consuming time, repairing of damaged members, etc. In addition to these, powerful equipments with advanced technology have motivated development of global vibration based damage detection methods. These methods base on observation of the changes in the structural dynamic properties and updating finite element models. The existence, location, severity and effect on the structural behavior of the damages can be identified by using these methods. The main idea in these methods is to minimize the differences between analytical and experimental natural frequencies. In this study, an application of damage detection using model updating method was presented on a one storey reinforced concrete (RC) building model. The model was designed to be 1/2 scale of a real building. The measurements on the model were performed by using ten uni-axial seismic accelerometers which were placed to the floor level. The presented damage identification procedure mainly consists of five steps: initial finite element modeling, testing of the undamaged model, finite element model calibration, testing of the damaged model, and damage detection with model updating. The elasticity modulus was selected as variable parameter for model calibration, while the inertia moment of section was selected for model updating. The first three modes were taken into consideration. The possible damaged members were estimated by considering the change ratio in the inertia moment. It was concluded that the finite element model calibration was required for structures to later evaluations such as damage, fatigue, etc. The presented model updating based procedure was very effective and useful for RC structures in the damage identification.