Damage diagnosis by static response of underwater shell structures based on improved genetic algorithms

Taking an underwater shell structure as engineering background, the Improved Genetic Algorithms (IGAs) is applied to detect the structural damage by static response data acquisition in the paper. Firstly, region water-level and finite point strains of the underwater shell structure are measured. Then, the Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are optimized. Finally, the structural damage location and degree are identified by comparison between measurement strains and calculation ones. When the measured strains are approached most close to the one among all the calculation strains, the structural damage condition is determined. In order to diagnose the large-scale structural damage by GAs, the decoding the damage location and damage index at same time is proposed, as well as, fine-tuning of variables and niche technique are also introduced to improve the convergence efficiency of GAs.