An analytical perspective about structural damage identification based on transmissibility function

Transmissibility functions have been widely applied into the field of structural health monitoring, especially for damage detection. However, due to the existence of few analytical research works to conceive the significance of damage onset, the inherent mechanism of damage identification based on transmissibility function has not yet been clearly and deeply evaluated. In this article, an analytical approach has been investigated to demonstrate how to localize damage components caused by mass and stiffness change in terms of multiple-degree-of-freedom mass–spring–damper system, based on the inherent analysis between the transmissibility functions for any two consecutive masses. This study also points out the importance of the system input: various input location may lead to different recognized damage regions. Related simulation case studies and laboratory activities are carried out, proving the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach.