Abstract Most structural health monitoring methods focus on using dynamic responses to detect and locate damage (i.e. items I and II above) because they are global methods that can provide rapid inspection of large structural systems. These dynamic-based methods can be divided into four groups: (1) spatial-domain methods, (2) modal-domain methods, (3) time-domain methods, and (4) frequency- domain methods. Spatial-domain methods use changes of mass, damping, and stiffness matrices to detect and locate damage. Modal-domain methods use changes of natural frequencies, modal damping ratios, and mode shapes to detect damage.