Structural damage identification by a cross modal energy sensitivity based mode subset selection strategy

This paper presents a strategy specialized for modal energy (ME) based methods, including modal strain energy (MSE) and modal kinetic energy (MKE), to select the best mode subset prior to damage identification. The damages due to the changes in stiffness and mass of structural members are both considered. In order to apply the proposed scheme to a more general situation, the cross modal energy (CME) sensitivity instead of the usual ME sensitivity is derived and designated as a sensitivity index. According to this index, the mode combinations (MCs) that are more sensitive to stiffness and mass changes are retained, while the remaining MCs that complicate the process of damage detection are eliminated. One of the important applications of the proposed mode subset selection strategy (MSSS) is to optimize the Cross-model cross-mode (CMCM) system by eliminating some redundant equations, thereby improving the performance of the CMCM method and reducing the computational burden. Numerical and experimental studies are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The results show that the performance of the CMCM method has been significantly improved after adopting the MSSS.