Investigation of combination characteristic of damage location and intensity in arch using wavelet coefficient

Arch is a typical complex structure comparing with beam and plate in bridge system. This paper investigates the damage characteristic combining the crack location with the crack intensity in arch. Initially, the first four displacement modes of intact and different damaged arch are simulated and the displacement mode changes are obtained. Next, the wavelet transformation is applied to the displacement mode changes in arch and wavelet coefficients at damage loci are picked. Finally, the damage index including damage location and damage intensity in arch is provided and plotted. The results show that wavelet coefficient module maximum of mode changes can be the damage indicator and is influenced by damage location and damage intensity. The damage indicator is proportional to the damage intensity and present monotonic trend according to damage location which depend on the mode order. At the same time, the large modulus maximum corresponds to small damage combination of location and intensity in the first four modes.