Connection Damage Detection of Double Beam System under Moving Load with Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

In this paper, a novel damage detection approach for the spring connection of the double beam system using the dynamic response of the beam and genetic algorithm is presented. The double beam system is regarded as both Bernoulli-Euler beams with simply supported ends, the upper and lower beams are connected by a series of linear springs with certain intervals. With the genetic algorithm, the dynamic acceleration response of double beam system under moving load, which can be solved by the Newmark-β integration procedure, is used as the input data to detect the connection damage. Thus the dynamic response of the double beam system with a certain damage pattern can be calculated employing the moving load model. If the calculated result is quite close to the recorded response of the damaged bridge, this damage pattern will be the solution. The connection damage detection process of the proposed approach is presented herein, and its feasibility is studied from the numerical investigation with simple and multiple damages detection. It is concluded that the sophisticated damage conditions need much longer time to detect successfully.