Computational Methods in Engineering

In this paper, a new vibration-based damage detection method for damage localization in shear frames is presented. For this purpose, a new damage index is proposed by means of static displacements estimated using only the first several mode data and Grey Relation Theory. The efficiency of the presented method has been demonstrated through studying several damage scenarios on three examples of shear frames with a different number of stories. The effects of various situations such as the existence random noises in the recorded data, number of available modes, different damage scenarios and irregularity in the structural characteristics have been studied on the applicability of the presented method. The obtained results show the robustness and good performance of the presented method in the damage diagnosis of shear frames. Some of the most important advantages of the suggested method can be summarized as its ability in damage localization by means of only the first mode data, low sensitivity to the random noises, and high speed and accuracy in estimating damage locations.