Stiffness Matrix Estimation via Differential Evolution Algorithm

The research effort reported in this paper focuses on identifying the changes between the undamaged and damaged situations by the application of Genetic Algorithms (GAs). In particular, the differential evolution (DE) algorithm is used to solve an inverse problem. The stiffness matrix identification of a multi-degrees of freedom structure is pursued. The basic assumptions are that the order of the model is known, and that the stiffness matrix can be built starting from some parameters, whose optimal values are to be reached through a suitable search algorithm. The process was first illustrated for a plane frame and, then, generalized by using a three-dimensional sensor location. In this paper special care is devoted to the convergence issue, which should prevent the analysis from reaching local maxima/minima in the optimization process.