Damage detection of structures with detrended fluctuation and detrended cross-correlation analyses

Recently, fractal analysis has shown its potential for damage detection and assessment in fields such as biomedical and mechanical engineering. For its practicability in interpreting irregular, complex, and disordered phenomena, a structural health monitoring (SHM) system based on detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and detrended cross-correlation analysis (DCCA) is proposed. First, damage conditions can be swiftly detected by evaluating ambient vibration signals measured from a structure through DFA. Damage locations can then be determined by analyzing the cross correlation of signals of different floors by applying DCCA. A damage index is also proposed based on multi-scale DCCA curves to improve the damage location accuracy. To verify the performance of the proposed SHM system, a four-story numerical model was used to simulate various damage conditions with different noise levels. Furthermore, an experimental verification was conducted on a seven-story benchmark structure to assess the potential damage. The results revealed that the DFA method could detect the damage conditions satisfactorily, and damage locations can be identified through the DCCA method with an accuracy of 75%. Moreover, damage locations can be correctly assessed by the damage index method with an improved accuracy of 87.5%. The proposed SHM system has promising application in practical implementations. (paper)