Simulation study on damage localization of a beam using evidence theory

Structural damage localization plays an important role in structural damage identification. An cumulative structural damage localization method based on evidence theory is studied in this paper. An algorithm for cumulative fusion of primary localization information is presented. In the numerical study, a fixed-end beam is inspected. Two damage cases are studied, one with single damage and the other with multiple damages. White noises are added to the beam mode shapes of the first five orders to simulate the measurement noises. First, Modal Strain Energy Change Ratio (MSECR) method is used to localize the damage elements using the noise-contaminated mode shapes. Then, the locations determined by MSECR are taken as primary information and fused cumulatively. In both the single-damage-case and the multiple-damage-case, the fused results show that damaged elements are accurately identified. Furthermore, the damage elements are distinguished much more clearly than those identified from MSECR.