A coupled method for structural damage identification

This paper presents a coupled method for structural damage identification. Firstly, the damage localization criterion (DLC) is defined to determine the damaged degree-of-freedom (dof). Then the damaged elements can be ascertained according to the relation between the element number and the dof number. The natural frequency sensitivity method is employed to obtain damage extents with the damaged elements determined. The presented method is demonstrated on a simply supported beam. Results show that the method is simple and effective for structural damage detection.