Research Article
Generative Adversarial Network for Damage Identification in
Civil Structures
Zahra Rastin ,
1
Gholamreza Ghodrati Amiri ,
1
and Ehsan Darvishan
2
1
Natural Disasters Prevention Research Center, School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science & Technology, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran
Correspondence should be addressed to Gholamreza Ghodrati Amiri; ghodrati@iust.ac.ir
Received 19 May 2021; Revised 15 August 2021; Accepted 23 August 2021; Published 6 September 2021
Academic Editor: Carlo Rainieri
Copyright © 2021 Zahra Rastin et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In recent years, many efforts have been made to develop efficient deep-learning-based structural health monitoring (SHM)
methods. Most of the proposed methods employ supervised algorithms that require data from different damaged states of a
structure in order to monitor its health conditions. As such data are not usually available for real civil structures, using supervised
algorithms for the health monitoring of these structures might be impracticable. is paper presents a novel two-stage technique
based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) for unsupervised SHM and damage identification. In the first stage, a deep
convolutional GAN (DCGAN) is used to detect and quantify structural damages; the detected damages are then localized in the
second stage using a conditional GAN (CGAN). Raw acceleration signals from a monitored structure are used for this purpose,
and the networks are trained by only the intact state data of the structure. e proposed method is validated through applications
on the numerical model of a bridge health monitoring (BHM) benchmark structure, an experimental steel structure located at
Qatar University, and the full-scale Tianjin Yonghe Bridge.
1. Introduction
Civil structures need to have their health state monitored
regularly. is is necessary in order to detect damages in the
early stage and ensure the safety of these structures by
repairing the detected damages on time. SHM provides a
practical means of automatic assessment of structural health
conditions and thus has attracted so much attention in
recent years. e main objectives of the studies conducted in
this field are damage detection, localization, and quantifi-
cation in civil, aerospace, and mechanical structures.
SHM is conducted by processing the data acquired from
a network of sensors installed on the structure [1]. With
great advances in computational power and sensing tech-
nologies, leading to the age of big data, new opportunities
have been provided for SHM. Machine learning is a
promising technology of artificial intelligence that is so
popular for big data processing and has recently emerged in
the field of SHM [2, 3]. Machine learning tools such as
feedforward artificial neural network (ANN) [4–6], support
vector machine (SVM) [7–9], and genetic algorithm (GA)
[10–12] have been widely used in SHM and damage de-
tection. Among machine learning techniques, deep-learn-
ing-based algorithms are gaining more and more popularity
due to their ability to extract damage-sensitive features
automatically.
Vision-based deep learning approaches have been uti-
lized in health monitoring of structures for purposes such as
crack detection [13–16], fatigue detection [17], concrete
spalling detection [18], and corrosion assessment [19, 20].
Although these techniques have been proven to be effective
in detecting visible damages, they cannot be used to detect
damages hidden in internal parts of structures. erefore,
most of the SHM studies are recently focused on vibration-
based methods. ese methods use the vibration response of
a structure to perform damage detection tasks. e idea
behind vibration-based methods is that damage-induced
changes in a structure alter its vibration response [21].
Vibration-based SHM and damage detection through
deep learning can be performed using supervised or
Hindawi
Shock and Vibration
Volume 2021, Article ID 3987835, 12 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3987835