Structural damage detection using information fusion technique

In order to precisely identify the multiple damage locations of a structure, an information fusion technique is proposed in this paper. First, the frequency data and the mode shape data are regarded as two different information sources, and local decisions can be obtained using the multiple damage location assurance criterion (MDLAC) method and the frequency change damage detection method (FCDDM), respectively. Then, the local decisions are sent to a fusion centre. In the fusion centre, three main fusion approaches are applied to integrate all the local decisions. Finally, a global decision is acquired. The measurement errors are also taken into account in the fusion process. The numerical example and analysis demonstrate that the identification results of the three information fusion methods are better than those of the MDLAC method and the frequency change damage detection method. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.