Automated Impedance-based Structural Health Monitoring

Incorporating Effective Frequency Shift for Compensating

Temperature Effects
KI-YOUNG KOO,1 SEUNGHEE PARK,2,* JONG-JAE LEE3
1

AND

CHUNG-BANG YUN1,*

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Cheoncheon-dong, Jangan-gu

Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sejong University, Gunja-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Korea
ABSTRACT: This study presents an impedance-based structural health monitoring (SHM)
technique considering temperature effects. The temperature variation results in significant
impedance variations, particularly a frequency shift in the impedance, which may lead to
erroneous diagnostic results of real structures, such as civil, mechanical, and aerospace
structures. In order to minimize the effect of the temperature variation on the impedance
measurements, a previously proposed temperature compensation technique based on the
cross-correlation between the reference-impedance data and a concurrent impedance data is
revisited. In this study, cross-correlation coefficient (CC ) after an effective frequency shift
(EFS), which is defined as the frequency shift causing two impedance data to have the
maximum correlation, is utilized. To promote a practical use of the proposed SHM strategy,
an automated continuous monitoring framework using MATLAB is developed and incorporated with the current hardware system. Validation of the proposed technique is carried out
on a lab-sized steel truss bridge member under a temperature varying environment. It has been
found that the CC values have shown significant fluctuations due to the temperature variation,
even after applying the EFS method. Therefore, an outlier analysis providing the optimal
decision limits under the inevitable variations has been carried out for more systematic
damage detection. It has been found that the threshold level shall be properly selected
considering the daily temperature range and the minimum target damage level for detection.
It has been demonstrated that the proposed strategy combining the EFS and the outlier
analysis can be effectively used in the automated continuous SHM of critical structural
members under temperature variations.
Key Words: impedance of piezoelectric sensors, structural health monitoring, temperature
effects, effective frequency shift, cross-correlation coefficients, outlier analysis, steel truss
members.

INTRODUCTION
health monitoring (SHM) has become
an important issue in many fields, such as civil,
mechanical, and aerospace engineering. In recent years,
the electromechanical impedance method, which utilizes
piezoelectric materials as collocated actuator-sensors,
has emerged as a new SHM technique (Giurgiutiu and
Rogers, 1997; Giurgiutiu et al., 1999; Park et al., 2000,
2003a, 2005, 2006a; Soh et al., 2000; Tseng et al., 2000;
Zagrai and Giurgiutiu, 2001; Bhalla et al., 2002). In this
technique, a piezoelectric sensor is surface-mounted to
the host structure by means of a high strength epoxy

TRUCTURAL

*Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ycb@kaist.ac.kr

and shparkpc@skku.edu
Figures 118 appear in color online: http://jim.sagepub.com

JOURNAL

OF INTELLIGENT

adhesive and its electrical impedance is extracted across

a high frequency-band, typically in the order of kHz.
The real part of this signature is used as a representation
of the local dynamic parameters of the structure in the
vicinity of the sensor. Damage to the structure in the
vicinity of the sensor is expected to alter this signature
thereby giving an indication of the imminent damage.
However, there are many impediments to the practical
application of the technique for SHM of real structures,
such as bridges, buildings, and airplanes. The main
challenge lies in achieving continuous monitoring of the
impedance response of the piezoelectric sensor over
sufficiently long periods; several days, months, or years.
To this end, the development in terms of hardware and
software systems has been pursued. From the viewpoint
of hardware systems, the low-cost, portable, and wireless

MATERIAL SYSTEMS

AND

STRUCTURES, Vol. 20March 2009

1045-389X/09/04 036711 $10.00/0

DOI: 10.1177/1045389X08088664
SAGE Publications 2009
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore

367

368

K.-Y. KOO ET AL.

telemetry requirements resulted in an on-board active

sensor system (Grisso and Inman, 2005; Mascarenas
et al., 2006; Park et al., 2006b). The on-board active
sensor system interrogates a structure utilizing a selfsensing macro-fiber composite (MFC) patch and the
low-cost impedance measuring chip, and all the structural interrogation and data analysis are pursued in near
real-time at the sensor location. From the viewpoint of
software systems, the development of an automated
algorithm suitable for continuous monitoring under
significant environmental variation especially temperature effects should be accompanied with the corresponding hardware system. Several studies have been
reported about the temperature variation effects on the
impedance measurement (Sun et al., 1995; Park et al.,
1999a,b; Bhalla et al., 2003). Sun et al. (1995) used a
temperature compensation method based on crosscorrelation to correct the horizontal shift in the impedance signature pattern. Park et al. (1999a,b) proposed
an impedance-based health monitoring technique under
a temperature varying environment considering the root
mean square deviations (RMSD) of the measured signatures after introducing proper shifts in the horizontal
and vertical directions. Bhalla et al. (2003) also investigated the influence of the structureactuator interactions and temperature on the impedance signatures.
In this study, the change of the impedance data under
temperature variation has been investigated using an
automated continuous monitoring system. In order to
minimize the effect of the temperature variation on the
impedance measurements, the temperature compensation technique previously proposed by Park et al.
(1999a) is revisited. In this study, the authors utilize
cross-correlation coefficient (CC) with an effective
frequency shift (EFS) which is defined as the frequency
shift causing the concurrent impedance data to have the
maximum correlation with the reference-impedance
data. The proposed technique was applied to health
monitoring of a lab-sized steel truss bridge member
under a temperature varying environment. It has been
found that the CC values have shown significant fluctuations due to the temperature variations, even after
applying the EFS method. Therefore, an outlier analysis
providing the optimal decision limits under this inevitable variation has been carried out for more systematic
damage detection. Herein, as the damage level increases,
the threshold level should be properly selected considering the daily temperature range and the minimum
target damage level for detection, and continuous
updating of the threshold level is inevitably required.
Through an experimental study using a MFC sensor to
detect artificial cuts on a steel truss member, it has been
demonstrated that the proposed strategy combining the
EFS method and the outlier analysis can be applied to
the automated continuous SHM of critical structural
members under temperature variations.

IMPEDANCE-BASED STRUCTURAL HEALTH

MONITORING
In general, the impedance-based SHM technique
utilizes small piezoelectric sensors, such as piezoelectric
ceramic (PZT) and MFC sensors, attached to a structure
as self-sensing actuators to simultaneously excite the
structure with high-frequency excitations and to monitor
the changes in the measured impedance signature. Since
the piezoelectric sensor is bonded directly to the structure
of interest, the mechanical impedance of the structure is
directly correlated with the measured electrical impedance of the piezoelectric sensor. Figure 1 presents an
idealized 1-D model between the piezoelectric sensor and
a host structure. Then, the electromechanical impedance
function of the coupled system can be represented as
a function of frequency as (Liang et al., 1994):


Ztotal ! i!C 1  231

1
Zs !
ZA ! Zs !

where C is the zero-load capacitance of the piezoelectric

sensor, 31 is the electromechanical coupling coefficient
of the piezoelectric sensor, ZS is the impedance of
the host structure, and ZA is the impedance of the
un-bonded piezoelectric sensor.
Thus, by observing changes in the electrical impedance measurement of the piezoelectric sensor, assessments can be made about the integrity of the host
structure (Giurgiutiu and Rogers, 1997; Giurgiutiu
et al., 1999; Park et al., 2000, 2003a, 2005, 2006a; Soh
et al., 2000; Tseng et al., 2000; Zagrai and Giurgiutiu,
2001; Bhalla et al., 2002). However, there are still many
impediments to the practical application of the technique for SHM of real bridge and building structures, such
as the sensitivity of the impedance measurement to the
temperature variation.

CONTINUOUS IMPEDANCE MONITORING

SYSTEM
In recent years, the use of wireless sensors and
networks is becoming increasingly popular as a research

I = i sin(wt+f)

V = n sin(wt)

Piezosensor

K
C

Figure 1. Idealized 1-D electromechanical modeling between

a piezoelectric sensor and a host structure (Giurgiutiu and Rogers,
1997).

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Impedance-based SHM Technique

topic for SHM system. In particular, development of

a self-contained wireless sensor incorporating on-board
actuating/sensing, power generation, on-board data
processing/damage diagnostic, and radio frequency
(RF) technologies is strongly required. With the current
trend of SHM heading towards unobtrusive selfcontained sensors, the approaches integrating MEMS
and RF telemetry-based active sensing systems on the
electromechanical impedance-based damage detection
technique have been investigated untiringly by several
researchers (Grisso and Inman, 2005; Mascarenas et al.,
2006; Park et al., 2006b). Grisso and Inman (2005)
developed an autonomous on-board wireless impedance-based SHM system. The on-board sensor system
interrogates a structure utilizing a PZT patch and the
low-cost impedance method, and all the structural
interrogation and data analysis are pursued in near
real-time at the sensor location. Moreover, a wireless
telemetry that alerts the end user of any harmful changes
in the structure is combined. Conventional impedance
analyzers, such as HP4294A for the electromechanical
impedance method are too expensive and too bulky,
which is not attractive for real world applications.
To overcome these limitations, Mascarenas et al.
(2006) devised an active sensor node, as displayed in
Figure 2, which consists of AD5933, a microcontroller
(ATmega128L), and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter
(XBee). AD5933 developed by Analog Device is a new
impedance measuring device of low cost, portable, and
readily combined with a wireless telemetry, as shown in
Figure 3, which costs only 150$. A PZT patch interrogates a host structure by using a self-sensing technique
of the AD5933. All the processes including structural
interrogation, data acquisition, signal processing, and
damage diagnostic are performed at the sensor location
by the microcontroller. And only damage diagnostic
result implying damage or no damage will be transmitted to the end-user through the RF data transmission. Finally, the LED light shows green or red color
according to intact or damage state, respectively.

P
Z
T

Figure 3. A miniaturized impedance measuring device (AD5933).

LED
AD5933

Microcontroller
Tx
(RF)

Structure

Park et al. (2006b) validated the feasibility of the active

sensing node through two kinds of example studies for
corrosion detection on an aluminum beam and loose
bolt inspection on a bolt-jointed structure.
In this context, this study presents an automated
continuous impedance monitoring system. As a current
laboratory test setup, commercial equipments including
impedance analyzers and temperature measurement
systems are supported via General Purpose Interface
Bus (GPIB) which is the most common interface for
measurement and control systems, and RS232C which is
a standard for serial binary data communication. The
impedance analyzer HP4294A is connected to a laptop
computer through local area network (LAN), so that
GPIB commands may be instructed and measurements
may be received via telnet protocol. A computer
program developed in MATLAB language performs
all the tasks of the continuous impedance monitoring:
(1) scheduling and execution of each measurement task,
(2) measuring the impedance and temperature through
equipment automations, (3) displaying real time measurements and diagnosis results on the screen, and

Indoor: 30 m
Outoor: 100 m
2.4GHz data link

Base
station
Rx
(RF)

Active sensing node

(MFC + AD5933 + ATMega128L + XBee)
Wireless sensor
Network system

On-line wireless
SHM

Figure 2. An active sensor node for wireless impedance-based SHM system (Mascarenas et al., 2006).

370

K.-Y. KOO ET AL.

(4) data archiving. Using the current continuous impedance monitoring system, the impedance measurement
can be carried out automatically over sufficiently long
periods.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
Test Specimen and Test Setup
An experimental study was carried out to investigate
the feasibility of the proposed method for continuous
health monitoring using a MFC sensor on a steel truss
member under a temperature varying environment. The
test specimen is a 1/8 scale model with a dimension of
150  150  530 mm3 for a vertical truss member of
Seongsu Bridge, Seoul, Korea, which caused the collapse
of the bridge in 1994. The specimen consists of two
segments with wide flange sections of different flange
thicknesses of 6 and 3 mm welded together as in Figure 5.

A d33-type MFC sensor of 28  14  0.02 mm3 was

employed to detect three damage cases with an artificial
cut with different lengths of 2, 4, and 8 mm sequentially
inflicted at the same location on the welded zone of the
specimen. The MFC sensor was placed at a distance of
40 mm away from the cut on the outside surface of
a flange. A thermocouple was also placed near the MFC
sensor for temperature measurement. The present
experimental setup for the impedance-based SHM
consists of a host structure, a MFC sensor, an impedance
analyzer (HP4294A), a thermocouple, and a laptop
computer equipped with the continuous impedance
monitoring framework as shown in Figures 4 and 5.
Impedance Variations due to Temperature Effects
Temperature effects on the impedance signature of the
MFC sensor were investigated. Figure 6(a) shows the
measured impedance data on the intact structure during
a period over 10 days. The temperature varied in a range
Labtop computer

Impedance analyzer
(HP4294A)
LAN connection
Telnet protocol
to send GPIB commands
and to receive measurements
Temperature measurement
(TC-31K)

RS232C
Send commands and
receive measurement

Test specimen

A continuous SHM program

developed using MATLAB
(1) Scheduled excution
(2) Automated measurement
(3) Displaying real-time results
(4) Data archiving

Figure 4. An automated continuous impedance monitoring system.

50 mm

6 mm

MFC

Thermocoupler

530 mm

Cut

MFC
(28x14x0.02 mm3)
Thermocoupler
40 mm
Cut

3 mm
144 mm

Figure 5. Test specimen, MFC sensor, and thermocouple.

150 mm

371

Impedance-based SHM Technique

Effective Frequency Shift by Correlation Analysis

intact cases) measured at 22.6 and 10.38C, respectively.

Considerable variation with both vertical and horizontal
shifts can be observed between two impedance signatures and the CC is found to be very small as 0.099.
To compensate the impedance variation due to the
temperature change of 12.38C, an EFS by the crosscorrelation analysis is introduced in this study. Herein,
~ for an impedance data y(!) is defined as the
the EFS (!)
shift corresponding to the maximum cross-correlation
with the reference impedance data x(!) as:
n
o
P
 i !i  !

~  y
1=N N
i1 x!i  xy
max CC max
!~
!~
X Y
2

As mentioned earlier, the impedance and temperature

measurements were carried out continuously during
a long period. The total number of the measurements for
the baseline (intact) state is 700. Figure 7(a) shows the
first and the 338th impedance signatures (both for the

where x and y are the mean values of two impedance

signatures of x(!) and y(!); and  X and  Y are the
standard deviations. Note that the EFS method may
compensate the vertical shifts as well by subtracting the
mean values from the original signatures. Figure 7(b)
shows the normalized impedance signature x^ 338 ! of

of 10.326.08C during the period. Figure 6(b) shows

similar results for a damage case with a cut of 4 mm in
the middle of the welded zone of a flange, where the
temperature variation was in the range of 15.931.38C.
The results show that the temperature variations caused
significant variations in the impedance signatures in
both the vertical and the horizontal axes. Thus, the
impedance changes due to the temperature variations
could lead to erroneous diagnostic results about the
integrity of the structure. Therefore, a damage-feature
selection strategy robust to the ambient temperature
variation is required in the impedance-based SHM for
real applications.

350

350

300

300
Real (Z (w))

(b) 400

Real (Z (w))

(a) 400

250
200

250
200

150

150

100

100

50
3.05

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

50
3.05

3.15
104

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

3.15
104

Figure 6. Impedance variations due to temperature variations in a range of 10.331.38C. (a) Intact cases, (b) Damage cases with a 4 mm cut.

Test#1 at 22.6C
Test#338 at 10.3C

(a) 140

CC = 0.099

130
120
110

Test#1 at 22.6C
Test#338 at 10.3C

Max. CC = 0.986

6
Real (Z (w))

Real (Z (w))

(b) 8

4
2

100
0
90
3.05

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

3.15
104

2
3.05

3.1

3.15

Frequency (Hz)

104

Figure 7. Impedance data for two intact measurements. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized impedance signatures after EFS
(Reference: Test #1).

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K.-Y. KOO ET AL.

Test #338 after an EFS along with the normalized

reference signature x^ 1 ! of Test #1 as:
~  x 1
x1 !  !
X1 X338
~  x 338
x338 !  !
:
x^ 338 !
X1 X338

Cross-correlation-based Damage Detection using

Effective Frequency Shift

x^ 1 !

Excellent match between two signatures for the intact

case can be observed, and the maximum correlation
coefficient between two signatures after the EFS is
found to be as high as 0.986. Figure 8(a) shows two
impedance signatures for the same damage case with a
cut of 2 mm, measured at 25.88C (Test #763) and 20.28C
(Test #805). In the present case, the EFS was evaluated
by taking the signature of Test #763 as the reference.
The maximum CC between two measurements increases
from 0.139 to 0.983 as the EFS introduces as in
Figure 8(b). Figures 9 and 10 show similar results for
damage cases with a cut of 4 and 8 mm, respectively.
(a)

Test#763 at 25.8C

The feasibility of the cross-correlation-based damage

detection method using the proposed EFS was investigated for three damage cases with an artificial cut with
different lengths of 2, 4, and 8 mm. Narrow cuts with a
width of 0.5 mm were sequentially inflicted in the middle
of the welded zone of a flange as shown in Figure 5.
After a cut of 2 mm was inflicted, a series of impedance
measurements was carried out under temperature
variations in the range of 16.128.58C. Typically, an
impedance measurement at 22.68C (Test #951) for a case
with a 2 mm cut is compared with the baseline (intact)
impedance measurement at the same temperature (Test
#1) in Figure 11(a). A big difference can be observed
between two impedance signatures, and the CC values
Test#763 at 25.8C

(b) 8

Test#805 at 20.2C

160

Test#805 at 20.2C

CC = 0.139

140
130

Max. CC = 0.983

6
Real (Z (w))

150
Real (Z (w))

It has been found that the maximum CC for the same

damage case increases remarkably after an EFS.

120

4
2
0

110
3.05

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

2
3.05

3.15
104

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

3.15
104

Figure 8. Impedance data for two damage cases with a 2 mm cut. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized impedance signatures
after EFS (Reference: Test #763).

(a) 190

Test#1116 at 22.6C

180

Test#1155 at 31.3C

170

CC = 0.100

Test#1116 at 22.6C

(b) 8

Test#1155 at 31.3C

Max. CC = 0.967

Real (Z (w))

Real (Z (w))

160
150
140
130

4
2

120
0

110
100
90
3.05

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

3.15
104

2
3.05

3.1
Frequency (Hz)

3.15
104

Figure 9. Impedance data for two damage cases with a 4 mm cut. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized impedance signatures
after EFS (Reference: Test #1116).

373

Impedance-based SHM Technique

obtained are as low as 0.055. Figure 11(b) shows the

normalized impedance signature of Test #951 after an
EFS along with the normalized reference signature
(Test #1), which indicates that the maximum correlation
coefficient increased remarkably to 0.920. However, the
value is smaller than the maximum CC for two intact
cases (i.e., 0.986) shown in Figure 7(b). Figures 12 and
13 show similar results for larger damage cases with a 4
and 8 mm cut, respectively. The maximum CCs with the
intact case (Test #1) after the EFS are found to be 0.851
(for a 4 mm cut) and 0.680 (for an 8 mm cut), which are
significantly smaller than the previous intact and small
damage cases.
Figure 14(a) shows the CCs after the EFS for all
measurement cases with a cut of 2, 4, and 8 mm. The
EFSs were evaluated by taking the signature of an intact
case (Test #1) as the reference. It can be clearly observed
that the maximum correlation coefficient after the
EFS drops very rapidly with increasing damage level,

Test #1466 at 28.4C

Test #1522 at 21.7C

(a) 350

s
n
X
ReZi, 1  ReZi, 0 2
RMSD%
 100
ReZi, 0 2
i1

(b) 8

CC = 0.013

200

150

100
3.05

Test#1466 at 28.4C
Test#1522 at 21.7C

Max. CC = 0.983

250

where Zi,0 is the impedance function at !i for the

baseline case, Zi,1 is a concurrent impedance at !i, and
n is the number of frequency points. A large value of
RMSD means stronger indication of damage occurrence
in the concurrent case with respect to the baseline case.

Real (Z (w))

Real (Z (w))

300

which indicates the effectiveness of the present

CC-based damage detection method using the EFS.
For the purpose of comparison, three other damage
measures for the impedance-based SHM were additionally considered: (a) maximum CCs without EFSs, (b)
RMSD with EFSs, and (c) RMSD without EFSs.
Results of the additional analyses are displayed in
Figures 14(b), 15(a) and 15(b). The RMSD values were
evaluated as:

3.1

3.15

Frequency (Hz)

104

2
3.05

3.1

3.15

Frequency (Hz)

104

Figure 10. Impedance data for two damage cases with an 8 mm cut. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized impedance signatures
after EFS (Reference: Test #1466).

(a) 160

Test#1 at 22.6C
Test#951 at 22.6C

150

CC = 0.055

130
120
110
100

Test#1 at 22.6C
Test#951 at 22.6C

6
Real (Z (w))

140
Real (Z (w))

(b) 8

Max. CC = 0.920

4
2
0

90
80
3.05

3.1

3.15

Frequency (Hz)

104

2
3.05

3.1

3.15

Frequency (Hz)

104

Figure 11. Impedance data for an intact case and a damage case with a 2 mm cut. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized
impedance signatures after EFS (Reference: Test #1).

374

K.-Y. KOO ET AL.

Test#1 at 22.6C
Test#1116 at 22.6C

(a)
180

(b)

Test#1 at 22.6C
Test#1116 at 22.6C

CC = 0.045

Max. CC = 0.851

6
Real (Z (w))

Real (Z (w))

160
140
120

100
80
3.05

3.1

2
3.05

3.15
104

Frequency (Hz)

3.1

3.15
104

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 12. Impedance data for an intact case and a damage case with a 4 mm cut. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized
impedance signatures after EFS (Reference: Test #1).

Test#1 at 22.6C

(b) 8

Test#1 at 22.6C

(a) 180

Test#1340 at 22.6C

Test#1340 at 22.6C

CC = 0.101

Max. CC = 0.680

6
Real (Z (w))

Real (Z (w))

160

140

120

100

80
3.05

3.1

3.15

Frequency (Hz)

104

2
3.05

3.1

3.15
104

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 13. Impedance data for an intact case and a damage case with an 8 mm cut. (a) Original impedance signatures, (b) Normalized
impedance signatures after EFS (Reference: Test #1).

Intact
(a)

(b)
1

1.2
1

0.9
0.85

2mm cut

0.8
4mm cut

0.75

0.65

8mm cut

200

400

600

800
Test no.

1000

35
30
25
20
15
10
1200

1400

1600

Temperature (C)

0.7

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2

35
30
25
20
15
10
0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Temperature (C)

Max. CC w/o EFS

0.95
Max. CC w/ EFS

2 mm cut 4 mm cut 8 mm cut

1600

Test no.

Figure 14. Cross-correlation coefficients for all cases with respect to Test #1. (a) After the effective frequency shift, (b) Before the effective
frequency shift.

375

Impedance-based SHM Technique

RMSD w/o EFS (%)

100
4 mm cut
2 mm cut

35
30
25
20
15
10
200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Temperature (C)

50

2 mm cut

4 mm cut 8 mm cut

250

8 mm cut
RMSD w/ EFS (%)

Intact

(b)

150

200
150
100
50
35
30
25
20
15
10

200

400

Test no.

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Temperature (C)

(a)

1600

Test no.

Figure 15. Root mean square deviations for all cases from Test #1. (a) After the effective frequency shift, (b) Before the effective frequency shift.

Figures 14(b) and 15(b) present the maximum CCs

and RMSD results without applying the EFSs, while
Figures 14(a) and 15(a) show the results incorporating
the EFSs. In the case of the RMSD-based method, the
EFSs correspond to the minimum RMSDs after the
shift. It is noted that both CC-based and RMSD-based
methods without the EFSs did not provide good damage
diagnostic results, while both results with the EFSs
showed successful damage detections even under temperature varying environment. The general performance
of the CC-based and RMSD-based methods with the
respective EFSs is found to be equally good.

DAMAGE DETECTION USING OUTLIER

ANALYSIS

DV

Dth

Outlier, xV
Out-Dimensional
decision boundary

if DV >Dth then xV is outlier!

xV came from a damaged state.

Figure 16. Multivariate outlier analysis (novelty detection).

Outlier Analysis
An automated damage diagnostic system without
requiring any a priori mathematical model of the
structure, may provide an efficient SHM tool for real
structures. In order to satisfy this requirement, a
so-called novelty detection outlier analysis method
has emerged as a robust unsupervised learning pattern
recognition tool for damage detection of structures
(Worden et al., 2000; Park et al., 2003b). The outlier
analysis aims to establish simply whether or not a new
pattern is significantly different from the previous
patterns, at the same time automatically ignoring any
negligible differences, such as random fluctuations due
to noise. That is, an outlier is an observation that is
significantly different from the rest of the population
and therefore the outlier is believed to be generated by
an alternate mechanism (Barnett and Lewis, 1994).
Assuming a multivariate normal distribution (MVN)
of sample patterns, the deviation of the candidate

outlier (x), from the rest of the population can be

measured by Mahalanobis square distance (MSD)
measure, given by:
D& x&  T 1 x&  

where  is the mean of the samples,  is the covariance

matrix of the samples, and D is a deviation measure.
For the SHM applications,  and  are exclusively
computed from the measurement for the baseline system
without including potential outliers. The deviation measure D is then compared with the threshold value Dth.
Herein, if D4Dth, x is an outlier, which means x came
from a damaged state. The basic concept of this outlier
analysis is illustrated in Figure 16. The threshold value
depends on both the number and the dimension of the
data set. To investigate the effect of the dimension and
the size of the data set, a Monte Carlo method is used to

376

0.8

0.4

0.6
Take Di = max di
i

0.4
0.2
0

0.2
0

2 0

Repeat n times to get

the distribution of Di
2

8 10
Dth

1.05
1
0.95
0.9
0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65

thr1 = 0.942
thr2 = 0.884
2 mm cut

thr3 = 0.807
4 mm cut

8 mm cut

Figure 17. Establishment of threshold through outlier analysis.

arrive at a threshold value. First, Xn which is a m  p

(dimension of data  number of observations) matrix of
the measurements is constructed as:

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
1600

Temperature (C)

1
99.5%
0.8 confidence
level
0.6

Max. CC w/ EFS

K.-Y. KOO ET AL.

Test no.

Figure 18. Damage detection through the outlier analysis.

Xn x1 , x2 , x3 , . . . , xp 
xi : input measurement vector:

For this study, the input vector xi is taken as the CC

values calculated using Equation (2). Then, the MSD is
computed for all xi as
di xi ,  xi  T 1 xi   i 1 . . . p

where  and  are estimated from Xn. The maximum

MSD among di is selected and stored as
Di max di :
i

The previous steps are repeated n times to have a large

population of Di, and the probability distribution function (PDF) of Di is empirically estimated. The threshold value Dth can be established from the estimated PDF
for a prescribed confidence level, as shown in Figure 17.
Damage Detection using Outlier Analysis
The optimal threshold values for more systematic
damage detection considering the fluctuations in the CC
values were investigated with a statistical confidence
level (C.L.) of 99.5% through an outlier analysis. In this
analysis, all the CC values before each damage step were
utilized as the basis data to update the threshold level of
the outlier analysis. The results are shown in Figure 18.
As expected, it has been found that after each cut
damage of 2, 4, and 8 mm is inflicted, the CC values
dropped abruptly under the corresponding threshold
values (thr1: 0.942, thr2: 0.884, and thr3: 0.807), so that
reliable SHM and systematic damage detection may be
achieved under a temperature varying environment by
the present impedance-based method. However, it is
noted that the threshold levels shall be properly selected
considering the daily temperature range and the minimum target damage level for detection, and continuous
updating of the threshold level is needed as more data
are available.

CONCLUSIONS
The feasibility of the impedance-based structural
health monitoring (SHM) technique to diagnose the
integrity of the structures has been investigated under
the temperature varying environment. The temperature
variation resulted in a significant variation in the
impedance measurement, particularly a frequency shift
in the impedance, which may lead to erroneous
diagnostic results regarding the integrity of real structures including civil, mechanical, and aerospace structures. In order to minimize the effects of the temperature
variations, a previously proposed temperature compensation technique based on cross-correlation between the
reference-impedance data and a concurrent impedance
data is revisited. In this study, the cross-correlation
coefficient (CC) with an effective frequency shift (EFS),
which is defined as the frequency shift causing two
impedance data to have the maximum correlation, was
utilized. To promote a practical use of the proposed
SHM strategy, an automated continuous monitoring
framework using MATLAB has been developed and
incorporated with the current hardware system. The
proposed techniques were applied to health monitoring
of a lab-sized steel truss bridge member with the
maximum temperature variation of 218C. From the
experimental study, it has been found that the EFS
method may significantly reduce the temperature variation effects on the damage detection. However, the CC
values have still shown significant fluctuations even after
applying the EFS method. Therefore, an outlier analysis
has been also employed to determine proper threshold
levels for more systematic damage detection considering
the fluctuations in the CCs. The results of the present
experimental study demonstrated that the proposed
impedance-based automated SHM technique incorporating the EFS and the outlier analysis can be effectively
used for diagnosing the structural integrity, even with
the presence of temperature variations.

Impedance-based SHM Technique

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was jointly supported by the Smart InfraStructure Technology Center (SISTeC) at KAIST
sponsored by the Korea Science and Engineering
Foundation, and a grant (code PM43200) from
Development of utilization technique for tide and
tidal current energy funded by Ministry of Maritime
Affairs and Fisheries of Korean government. This
financial support is greatly appreciated.

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