ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses a direct application to understand the sensitivity and reliability of various damage parameters for detecting and locating damages in heterogeneous materials like reinforced cement concrete. Damage parameters are assessed for increasing levels of cracking. A cost optimum strategy for inspection and maintenance of marine structures would be to apply instrument based structural health monitoring to the structure to identify onset and progress of damage. Damage in structural members leads to change in stiffness, damping or mass of the structure. The practical application of natural frequency for damage assessment faces a lot of challenges. The chapter examines numerical modeling using damage plasticity constitutive model to simulate damage characteristics of concrete. Damage parameters namely natural frequency, mode shape, Modal Assurance Criterion, Modal Scale Factor and Modal Strain Energy based indices are numerically examined for effectiveness in detecting and quantifying damages in concrete beams on marine structures.