ABSTRACT
Aiming at the shortcomings of the current small and medium-sized bridges in the daily safety inspections, a method for damage detection of structures using Gaussian curvature was proposed. According to the bending theory of the elastic thin plate, the qualitative relationship between the structural stiffness distribution and the bridge deck bending degree, Gaussian curvature, is obtained and verified by numerical examples and a model polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) bridge. A simple supported T-beam model was established in the finite element, and different heights, positions, numbers of cracks were set on the web of the main beam to simulate the structural stiffness damage. The analysis results show that the stiffness distribution of the structure can be clearly seen through the Gaussian curvature map of the bridge deck, and the cracks in the structure can be accurately identified by the discontinuities in Gaussian curvature map. Finally, a loading test was carried out on a PMMA bridge with crack in the laboratory, and the crack was successfully detected by the Gaussian curvature method. The research results in this paper can provide a reference for the damage identification of structures with Gaussian curvature.
