Identifying structural defects in structures with the aid of Harris hawks optimization

Given to their unpredictability, structural defects have been a significant concern for engineers for so long as they can lead to catastrophic consequences if they are not found at the earliest possible time. Therefore, damage detection has turned into a complicated yet attractive field for researchers in the past decades. Using modal parameters of structures, this paper develops a structural damage detection method that updates the finite element model of the structure and identifies structural defects. In the process, a novel meta-heuristic algorithm is also suggested to aid the model updating process in which damage is detected. A powerful cost function, which forms the basis of the model updating procedure, is formulated by dynamic parameters of the structure. The method is able to detect damage using a limited number of vibration modes while also considering noisy measurements. A numerical study is finally carried out to prove the capability of the proposed method in damage detection problems. The results indicate that the approach is completely efficient in different damage scenarios, even when a limited number of modal data are available.

Keywords:

Structural Health Monitoring , Harris Hawks Optimization , Finite Element Model Updating