Wavelet Packet Singular Entropy-Based Method for Damage Identification in Curved Continuous Girder Bridges under...

Area of Science:

• Civil Engineering
• Structural Health Monitoring
• Seismic Engineering

Background:

• Curved continuous girder bridges (CCGBs) are susceptible to seismic damage due to their horizontal curvature.
• Existing seismic damage detection methods for CCGBs are not well-resolved.
• Damage to CCGBs can lead to performance degradation and potential collapse.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel method for identifying seismic damage in CCGBs.
• To analyze the dynamic responses of CCGBs to seismic excitation for damage detection.
• To evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method.

Main Methods:

• Development of a wavelet packet singular entropy (WPSE) based approach.
• Utilizing wavelet packet transform, singular value decomposition, and information entropy for damage characterization.
• Finite element modeling of a CCGB with simulated seismic damage (stiffness reductions).
• Analysis of displacement responses to El Centro seismic excitation.

Main Results:

• The WPSE-based approach successfully located seismic damage in CCGBs.
• The method demonstrated higher accuracy compared to wavelet packet energy-based methods.
• Robustness analysis confirmed the WPSE method's strong immunity to noise.

Conclusions:

• The proposed WPSE method is effective for seismic damage identification in CCGBs.
• This approach offers superior accuracy and noise resistance for structural health monitoring.
• The method supports the development of practical seismic damage detection technologies using distributed sensing.