Unsupervised deep learning framework for ultrasonic-based distributed damage detection in concrete: integration of a deep auto-encoder and Isolation Forest for anomaly detection

This study presented an unsupervised anomaly detection-based framework for distributed damage detection in concrete using ultrasonic response signals. A deep fully connected auto-encoder was employed to reconstruct the ultrasonic response signals. This model was trained on the intact specimen’s responses. The auto-encoder demonstrated a relatively high prediction error encountering the damaged specimen’s responses. Two time-domain features (mean squared error and reconstructed-to-original signal ratio) and one frequency-domain feature (fundamental amplitude ratio) were defined to measure the reconstruction error of the auto-encoder (the damage-sensitive features). Finally, the Isolation Forest algorithm was implemented for anomaly (damage) detection. The beauty of this framework is that it requires a few numbers of data only from the intact specimen for training the auto-encoder and collecting the binary decision trees of the Isolation Forest. The framework was successfully implemented for damage detection in five geopolymer concrete specimens with different mix proportions. Using all three introduced damage-sensitive features, the framework demonstrated an average prediction accuracy of 95.0% and 93.0% for damaged and intact stages, respectively.