Detection of a concentrated damage in a parabolic arch by measured static displacements

The present paper deals with the identification of a concentrated damage in an elastic parabolic arch through the minimization of an objective function which measures the differences between numerical and experimental values of static displacements. The damage consists in a notch that reduces the height of the cross section at a given abscissa and therefore causes a variation in the flexural stiffness of the structure. The analytical values of static displacements due to applied loads are calculated by means of the principle of virtual work for both the undamaged and damaged arch. First, pseudo-experimental data are used to study the inverse problem and investigate whether a unique solution can occur or not. Various damage intensities are considered to assess the reliability of the identification procedure. Then, the identification procedure is applied to an experimental case, where displacements are measured on a prototype arch. The identified values of damage parameters, i.e., location and intensity, are compared to those obtained by means of a dynamic identification technique performed on the same structure.