Solution to the problem of bridge structure damage identification by a response surface method and an imperialist competitive algorithm

To increase the efficiency of structural damage identification (SDI) methods and timeously and accurately detect initial structural damage, this research develops an SDI method based on a response surface method (RSM) and an imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA). At first, a Latin hypercube design method is used for experimental design and selection of sample points based on RSM. Then, a high-order response surface surrogate model for the target frequency response and stiffness reduction factor is established. Finally, analysis of variance is performed to assess the overall goodness-of-fit and prediction accuracy of the established model. Then the results obtained are combined with structural dynamic response data to construct objective functions; furthermore, the optimal solution of parameter vector in the objective function is solved based on the ICA. Then damage positioning and quantification can be achieved according to location and degree of change in each parameter; finally, the RSM-ICA-based SDI method proposed is applied to damage identification of high-dimensional damaged simply-supported beam models. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, the damage identification results are compared with the results obtained from traditional optimization algorithms. The results indicate that: average errors in the structural stiffness parameters and natural frequency that are identified by the proposed method are 6.104% and 0.134% respectively. The RSM-ICA-based SDI method can more accurately identify the location and degree of damages with more significantly increased identification efficiency and better precision compared to traditional algorithms. This approach provides a novel means of solving SDI problems.