title: Information-theoretical noninvasive damage detection in bridge structures.
abstract: Damage detection of mechanical structures such as bridges is an important research problem in civil engineering. Using spatially distributed sensor time series data collected from a recent experiment on a local bridge in Upper State New York, we study noninvasive damage detection using information-theoretical methods. Several findings are in order. First, the time series data, which represent accelerations measured at the sensors, more closely follow Laplace distribution than normal distribution, allowing us to develop parameter estimators for various information-theoretic measures such as entropy and mutual information. Second, as damage is introduced by the removal of bolts of the first diaphragm connection, the interaction between spatially nearby sensors as measured by mutual information becomes weaker, suggesting that the bridge is "loosened." Finally, using a proposed optimal mutual information interaction procedure to prune away indirect interactions, we found that the primary direction of interaction or influence aligns with the traffic direction on the bridge even after damaging the bridge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Ave, Potsdam, New York 13699-5815, USA.
authors.forename: Amila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sudu Ambegedara
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Ave, Potsdam, New York 13699-5815, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699-5710, USA.
authors.forename: Kerop
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Janoyan
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Ave, Potsdam, New York 13699-5815, USA.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bollt