ABSTRACT
This study is intended to investigate changes in frequency of a steel plate girder bridge due to artificial damages through a damage experiment. Fatigue cracks observed in actual steel plate girder bridges were considered in the experiment, and artificial damages were introduced to the girder. Feasibility of damage detection using the frequencies and damage indicator from system matrix is examined through the damage experiment. Both for the experimental data and the corresponding finite element model, comparable modal properties are identified. The proposed feature extraction method indicated the damage sensitive features relevant to the identified modal properties. The proposed damage indicator successfully detected changes in those modal properties due to the artificial damage.
