Two-Stage Damage Detection Method Using the Artificial Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms

To identify the location and extent of structural damage, a new two-stage approach was developed, which combined the artificial neural networks (ANN) and genetic algorithms (GA). The changes in the dynamic characteristics of a structure as the input parameters of ANN were used for the interval estimation of damage element. Subsequently, the estimation interval is considered as a feasible region of GA to obtain the accurate estimate of damage location and damage extent. One advantage of the proposed approach is that it would decrease the size of ANN and form a small feasible region of GA. Another one is that only a few frequencies and associated modal shapes are needed to accurately assess the location and extent of damage. So it is suitable for damage detection of large and complex structure of civil engineering.