Damage Assessment from SOFO Dynamic Measurements

A dynamic laboratory test was carried out on a single-storey frame model placed on a shaking table. Measures were collected by a traditional scheme based on accelerometers installed on the storey and the basis of the frame structure, and by an innovative device, the SOFO dynamic system, which is based on long-gauge fiber-optic sensors installed in two different locations along one of the columns of the frame structure. The use of long-gauge strain sensors allows the detection of local damage that is visible in the global frequency response of the structure. In particular the fiber-optic sensors show a very high sensitivity and extend the frequency range (1mHz-1KHz). The peculiar contribution of this paper is to conduct an elaboration of the measured data through the damage detection scheme recently proposed by the first author. It is based on the idea of using a response surface model of the measure correlation for damage detection and localization.