Lorenzo Montanari

Optimal sampling in damage detection of flexural beams by continuous wavelet transform

Modern measurement techniques are improving in capability to capture spatial displacement fields occurring in deformed structures with high precision and in a quasi-continuous manner. This in turn has made the use of vibration-based damage identification methods more effective and reliable for real applications. However, practical measurement and data processing issues still present barriers to the application of these methods in identifying several types of structural damage. This paper deals with spatial Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) damage identification methods in beam structures with the aim of addressing the following key questions: (i) can the cost of damage detection be reduced by down-sampling? (ii) what is the minimum number of sampling intervals required for optimal damage detection ? The first three free vibration modes of a cantilever and a simple supported beam with an edge open crack are numerically simulated. A thorough parametric study is carried out by taking into account the key parameters governing the problem, including level of noise, crack depth and location, mechanical and geometrical parameters of the beam. The results are employed to assess the optimal number of sampling intervals for effective damage detection.

Damage Assessment in a Cracked Fiber-Reinforced Cantilever Beam Using Wavelet-Kurtosis Techniques

In the last decades the use of composite materials has increased especially in light-weight structural applications, such as wind turbine blades. These structural components require reliable methods for damage assessment to avoid progressive or sudden and catastrophic failures. In this paper, a model of a fiber-reinforced composite cantilever beam with a bridged edge crack, representing an existing damage state, is considered. The composite matrix of the beam exhibits a linear-elastic behavior, whereas a fracture mechanics-based theoretical model incorporating the crack bridging forces in the fiber-reinforcement is used to describe the elastic-plastic response of the cracked beam section subjected to bending moment. This model is employed to simulate the nonlinear static deflection of cantilever beams with different crack locations and depths. Wavelet and kurtosis-based identification techniques are employed in the localization and calibration of this damage in presence of noise. The influence of the bridging effect of the fibers on the success of the damage assessment is discussed.