A Hybrid Evidence-Genetic Method for the Identification of Multiple Structural Damages

A hybrid evidence-genetic method of determining the location and extent of multiple structural damages by using genetic algorithms is presented. The method makes use of the combination information of natural frequencies and mode shapes. First the damage detection strategy is to localize the damage sites by using an evidence theory, which can perfectly integrate the damage identification information coming from both natural frequencies and mode shapes; then, an improved genetic algorithm is proposed to determine the damage extent. A cantilever beam is analyzed as a numerical example to compare the performance of the proposed method with other methods. Simulation results show that identification results of the evidence theory are better than those both of the frequency MDLAC method and the mode shape MDLAC method, and the improved genetic algorithm is also more accurate and effective than the simple genetic algorithms. Therefore, the hybrid evidence-genetic method is very effective for the identification of multiple structural damages.