Damage detection of truss structures using two-stage optimization based on micro genetic algorithm

A simple and efficient two-stage optimization procedure is proposed to properly identify the sites and the extent of multiple damages in truss structures. In the first stage, the most potentially damaged elements are identified using an anti-optimization (AO) technique. In the second stage, a micro genetic algorithm (MGA) is performed to accurately determine the actual damage extents based on a priori knowledge from the first stage. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are proved by two illustrated test examples: the planar and space truss models with the numerically simulated data. The numerical results show the computational advantages of the proposed method to precisely determine the sites and the extent of multiple damages of truss structures.