Using a moving load to simultaneously detect location and severity of damage in a simply supported beam

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneously identifying both the location and severity of structural damage in a beam by using two independent moving load experiments. First, a simple but sufficiently accurate single degree of freedom model is presented to simulate the structure efficiently over a wide range of relevant inputs. We then introduce a damage sensitive feature (DSF) based on the integral of the velocity time history of the beam at its midspan when the load moves over the beam. A critical velocity, a function only of the beam’s first natural frequency and length, is obtained for the proposed DSF, upon which the damage can be located more accurately. The only required data for the damage detection is the midspan velocity-time history of the cracked beam subjected to a moving load, and the midspan static deflection of the intact beam subjected to a load of the same magnitude. In the last section of this paper, the capability of the proposed DSF is examined in the presence of noise. The results demonstrate the capability of the proposed method to find both the damage location and severity successfully, and methods for further reducing the effects of noise are suggested.