Damage Identification in Timber Structures Based on Wavelet Singular Spectrum Entropy

Vibration responses of building structure closely related to the structural health status. In this paper, wavelet singular spectrum entropy (WSSE) is proposed to evaluate the damage condition of building structure. A 1/3 scaled model of a Chinese ancient timber structure has been constructed, and three damage conditions and one restored condition of the structure are simulated. The acceleration responses for undamaged and the four simulated damaged and restored conditions are measured and analyzed by employing WSSE to identify the location at which the structure has incurred damage. Results show that (1) the relative variation rate of WSSE for the damaged position changes significantly; (2) the relative variation rate of WSSE of the point that is damaged more severely would become higher; and (3) signals of North-South and East-West directions are required for further identification. Moreover, a finite element modeling analysis of the timber structure under different damage conditions is performed, and the results verify the applicability of the method proposed.