Testing a new procedure for damage detection on framed structures subjected to strong motion earthquakes

Structural Health Monitoring and Damage Detection are areas of current interest in civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering. For many years, experimental modal testing has become a significant topic in the field of structural assessment, not only with regards to typical structures of mechanical engineering, but also of civil engineering. Damage Detection approach based on dynamic monitoring of structural properties over time has received a considerable attention in recent scientific literature. The basic idea arises from the notion that spectral properties, described in terms of the so-called modal parameters (eigenfrequencies, mode shapes, and modal damping), are functions of the physical properties of the structure (mass, energy dissipation mechanisms and stiffness). Structural damage exhibits its main effects in terms of stiffness and damping variation. As a consequence, using a permanent dynamic monitoring system becames possible to detect and, if suitably diffused on the structure, to localize structural and non-structural damage occurred on the structure during a strong earthquake. In this paper a new methodology to detect and localize a possible damage occurred on a framed structure after an earthquake is presented.