Damage detection with small data set using energy-based nonlinear features

This study proposes a new algorithm for damage detection in structures. The algorithm employs an energy-based method to capture linear and nonlinear effects of damage on structural response. For more accurate detection, the proposed algorithm combines multiple damage sensitive features through a distance-based method by using Mahalanobis distance. Hypothesis testing is employed as the statistical data analysis technique for uncertainty quantification associated with damage detection. Both the distance-based and the data analysis methods have been chosen to deal with small size data sets. Finally, the efficacy and robustness of the algorithm are experimentally validated by testing a steel laboratory prototype, and the results show that the proposed method can effectively detect and localize the defects. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.