Abstract:A new structural nonlinear damage identification technique based on response surface method is presented. Using the structural nonlinear response and its characteristics of power spectrum as damage dynamic indicators, the approximate analytic relationships between nonlinear damage and damage dynamic indicators for structures have been obtained by the polynomial response surface method. The simulation results show that the presented method can distinguish nonlinear damage from linear damage, and locate and quantify the nonlinear damage of the structure with some degree of accuracy. The demand in little information and the efficiency of computation demonstrates the potential of the presented method for nonlinear online damage identification of structures.