Damage detection of subway tunnel lining through statistical pattern recognition

Subway tunnel structure has been rapidly developed in many cities for its strong transport capacity. The model-based damage detection of subway tunnel structure is usually difficult due to the complex modeling of soil-structure interaction, the indetermination of boundary and so on. This paper proposes a new data-based method for the damage detection of subway tunnel structure. The root mean square acceleration and cross correlation function are used to derive a statistical pattern recognition algorithm for damage detection. A damage sensitive feature is proposed based on the root mean square deviations of the cross correlation functions. X-bar control charts are utilized to monitor the variation of the damage sensitive features before and after damage. The proposed algorithm is validated by the experiment of a full-scale two-rings subway tunnel lining, and damages are simulated by loosening the connection bolts of the rings. The results verify that root mean square deviation is sensitive to bolt loosening in the tunnel lining and X-bar control charts are feasible to be used in damage detection. The proposed data-based damage detection method is applicable to the online structural health monitoring system of subway tunnel lining.