Impact force localization for civil infrastructure using augmented Kalman Filter optimization

Impact forces induced by external object collisions can cause serious damages to civil engineering structures. While accurate and prompt identification of such impact forces is a critical task in structural health monitoring, it is not readily feasible for civil structures because the force measurement is extremely challenging and the force location is unpredictable for full-scale field structures. This study proposes a novel approach for identification of impact force including its location and time history using a small number of multi-metric observations. The method combines an augmented Kalman filter (AKF) and Genetic algorithm for accurate identification of impact force. The location of impact force is statistically determined in the way to minimize the AKF response estimate error at measured locations and then time history of the impact force is accurately constructed by optimizing the error co-variances of AKF using Genetic algorithm. The efficacy of proposed approach is numerically demonstrated using a truss and a plate model considering the presence of modelling error and measurement noises.