Abstract:Research purpose : Damage diagnosis of engineering structures is tlie core technology and theoretical basis of structural health monitoring. Based on the combination of the advantages of change rate of modal strain energy and directly analytical method,a new two - stage damage diagnosis method for frame structure was proposed,the change rate of modal strain energy was usd to identify the damage location for tlie first stage,and for the scond stage the directly analytical method was used to quantify the damage degree. At last, the two - stage metiiod was used to verfy its effectiveness. Research conclusion : ( 1 ) The proposed met!iod not only reduces the number of damage parameters of directly analytical method greatly,but also greatly reduces the number of required modes for damage identification. (2) Damage diagnosis can be conducted accurately only witii the lower orders of mode. ( 3 ) The two - stage damage diagnosis method is more closer to practical engineerng theoretically. ( 4 ) The research results can be used for detecting the damage location and damage degree of frame strictures.