Damage localization in a cable-stayed bridge via bio-inspired metaheuristic tools

Structural health monitoring is conceived to detect abnormal behaviors in structural systems. A highly non-linear objective function built on the discrepancies between true and generated modal features can be minimized for this purpose. After a finite element discretization is built, the design variables are chosen, and the optimization problem solved. Two bio-inspired metaheuristic tools, namely the artificial bee colony and the firefly algorithm, are employed to proceed toward the global minima. Comparing both identified and analytical stiffness matrices, the damage localization is performed. These methods are tested on a cable-stayed bridge placed in northern Italy. The efficiency of these tools is compared. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.