Data mining based damage identification using imperialist competitive algorithm and artificial neural network

Currently, visual inspections for damage identification of structures are broadly used. However, they have two main drawbacks; time limitation and qualified manpower accessibility. Therefore, more precise and quicker technique is required to monitor the condition of structures. To aid the aim, a data mining based damage identification approach can be utilized to solve these drawbacks. In this study, to predict the damage severity of single-point damage scenarios of I-beam structures a data mining based damage identification framework and a hybrid algorithm combining Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Imperial Competitive Algorithm (ICA), called ICA-ANN method, is proposed. ICA is employed to determine the initial weights of ANN. The efficiency coefficient and mean square error (MSE) are used to evaluate the performance of the ICA-ANN model. Moreover, the proposed model is compared with a pre-developed ANN approach in order to verify the efficiency of the proposed methodology. Based on the obtained results, it is concluded that the ICA-ANN indicates a better performance in detection of damage severity over the ANN method used only.