Application of the vibration method for damage identification of a beam with a variable cross-sectional area

Abstract

The subject of the paper is an application of the non-destructive vibration method for identifying the location of two cracks occurring in a beam. The vibration method is based on knowledge of a certain number of vibration frequencies of an undamaged element and the knowledge of the same number of vibration frequencies of an element with a defect. The analyzed beam, with a variable cross-sectional area, has been described according to the Bernoulli-Euler theory. To determine the values of free vibration frequencies the analytical solution, with the help of the Green’s function method, has been used.