Detection and Quantitative Assessment of Damages in Beam Structures Using Frequency and Stiffness Changes

Abstract

This paper is concerned with vibration based non-destructive evaluation of structures, with a focus on quantitative assessment of damage. In previous works, a reliable method to locate open cracks in beams has been proposed and tested using both data from numerical simulations and laboratory experiments. It bases on the fact the natural frequency of a bending vibrations mode attend different changes, depending on the loss of stored energy for the slice on which the damage is located. As bigger the mode shape curvature value on that location, so bigger the loss of stored energy and consequently the natural frequency decrease in that mode. Analyzing the natural frequency changes for a larger series of vibration modes, it’s possible to precisely locate damages. The authors succeed to find a single mathematical relation describing the frequency changes for all bending vibration modes, involving one term defining damage’s location and one defining its depth. While the first term changes for different modes, being defined by the mode shape curvature, the second maintain its value for all modes, being affected just by damage depth. This finding permits decoupling the location issue with that of quantitative assessment of damage. Latest researches, presented in this paper, succeed by finding the relation between the second term of the relation and some mechanical characteristics of the beam, i.e. extending the proposed method by including evaluation of damage severity. The approach is illustrated on a cantilever beam, modeled with 3D elements.