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APPLICATION OF EMPIRICAL MODE

DECOMPOSITION (EMD) METHOD IN
DETECTION OF CRACK IN A RECTANGUL....

Conference Paper · September 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2467.8488

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 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

APPLICATION OF EMPIRICAL MODE DECOMPOSITION (EMD)

METHOD IN DETECTION OF CRACK IN A RECTANGULAR
STEEL PLATE

Debanjan Mondal1, Akash Shrivastava2, AmiyaRanjan Mohanty3

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur-721302, INDIA
1
dave_14@iitkgp.ac.in, 2shri.aka1990@gmail.com, 3amohanty@mech.iitkgp.ernet.in

ABSTRACT

Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is a relatively new form of time series analysis which is
developed to decompose a signal into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). In this work, EMD is
introduced and key aspects of its application in detection of a crack in a rectangular steel plate
by analyzing the natural frequencies are proposed. This method helps to analyze a non-stationary
signal.Comparative study of various signal processing techniques such as Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT), Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and Empirical Mode Decomposition
(EMD) has been performed to analyze changes in modal characteristics in order to detect a crack
in a rectangular steel plate. The natural frequencies of cracked and uncracked plates obtained by
EMD are also compared with Finite Element Method (FEM) results. Experiments are performed
where fixed plates are excited and time domain vibration data are acquired to employ signal
processing techniques.

Key Words: Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), IMFs, Signal processing, FFT, STFT,
Natural Frequency, Crack detection.

1. Introduction

Damage problems are of major concern for varieties of structures like plates, beams,
trusses, shells, offshore platform, aerospace structures etc. A small crack may cause
severe problem and affects the performance of these kinds of structures. Earlier damage
detection methods include visual observations and some localized experimental
techniques like acoustic, eddy current etc. These techniques are suitable for small
structures only and also required that the vicinity of damage be known a priori. Vibration
based damage detection techniques are capable to circumvent such problems. The basic
idea behind vibration based method is that the presence of any crack in structure leads to
change in its modal characteristics. A comprehensive review on vibration based damage
detection techniques is presented by Fan and Qiao [1]. In order to detect crack present in
the structure we can observe changes in modal frequencies, mode shapes flexibility
 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

coefficients etc. Natural frequency is a common modal feature used in crack detection.
Several research studies have been performed on various kind of structure like beam [2,
3], plates [4] etc.

Wavelet analyses, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Genetic algorithms are

some advanced methods used in damage detection. Small cracks does not make
significant changes in modal parameters, wavelet transform is useful for such cases [5].
In wavelet analysis it is pre-requisite to decide mother wavelet and decomposition level.
Whereas EMD is an adaptive technique to decompose the signal in time domain in order
to capture the signal discontinuity caused by damage. EMD is capable to identify damage
time instant and location. An experimental investigation is done by Xu et al. [6], where a
series of vibration tests were performed on a three-story shear building model to identify
damage time instants and to locate the damage.

In the present work a crack detection technique making use of empirical mode
decomposition is presented.Experiments are carried out on square steel plates with
clamped edges. Plates are excited and time history is recorded for further processing. Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT) and Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) are also done along
with EMD for the sake of comparison.

2. Empirical Mode Decomposition

Empirical Mode Decomposition was first introduced by Huang et al. [7], a new
adaptive signal processing method, which can decomposes any set of data into several
intrinsic mode functions (IMF) by sifting operation. This technique has earlier been also
used by the research group at IIT Kharagpur, to identify bearing faults [8].Suppose y (t )
be the signal to be decomposed. In sifting process, first upper and lower envelopes of
y (t ) are created, connecting its local maxima and local minima through a cubic spline.
The mean of the envelopes is calculated and subtracted from the original signal y (t ) . The
difference between the original time history signal and the mean is called as the first IMF,
c1 , if it satisfies the conditions, (a) within the data range, the number of zero crossings
and the number of extrema must be equal or can only differ by one, (b) The envelopes
defined by the local maxima and minima should be symmetric with respect to the mean.
 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

Then the difference between y (t ) and c1 is considered as the new time history signal and

subjected to the same sifting process , giving the second IMF, c2 .The sifting process

continues until the residue becomes a monotonic function. The original signal y (t ) is
then finally expressed as the sum of the IMFs and the final residue.

N
y (t ) = ∑ c j (t ) + rN (t )
j =1

where c j (t ) = jth IMF component; and rN (t ) is the final residue. After decomposition the

first IMF contains highest frequency content of the signal where as final residue has the
lowest frequency content of the signal.
signal

3. Experimental Setup and Instrumentations

A plate of 150mm×150mm×2mm steel is used for present analysis. All edges of the
plate are clamped fig.1. A crack of length 90mm is made with 0.5mm width. At first a
random signal is generated by a signal
signa generator, SRS DS335, 3.1MHz synthesized
function generator is used for this purpose. Generated signal is passed through a filter;
filter typeused inn this analysis
analy isSRS SR650, a low pass/ high pass filter, frequency range
of 1 Hz to 100 KHz.

Fig 1.Clamped Steel Plate

The band pass frequency range of the filter is set from 50 Hz to 3000 Hz. The signal is
amplified by the power amplifier (B&K 2732) and
nd fed to the modal exciter (B&K 4824).
 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

The clamped plate is excited and the response signal from the accelerometer is sent to the
PC.

Signal Power Modal Clamped

Filter Amplifier Plate
Generator Exciter
Response
PC Signal

Fig 2.Experimental Setup

4. Results and Discussions (fig.3)

Results are arranged as follows: first the signal from the accelerometer is processed by
various signal processing methods like FFT, STFT and EMD. Then they are compared
with a Finite Element Method done previously [9]. Result close to the FEM shows the
efficiency of the method. Here a rectangular steel plate is considered for analyses. The
physical constants are as follows: length (a) = 150mm; breath (b) = 150 mm; thickness
(h) = 2 mm; density (ρ) = 7800 kg/m3; Young’s modulus (E) = 2X1011N/m2; Poisson’s
ratio (υ) = 0.29. Magnitude of force (F0) is taken as 1N, forcing location is x0/a = 0.25,
y0/b = 0.25. Structural damping factor is taken as 0.02. At 25o C ambient temperature,
density of air (ρo) is 1.1839 kg/m3 .

0.1
Amplitude

-0.1
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Time(s)

Fig 3. Response from the accelerometer for the cracked plate.

5. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) of Vibration signal (fig.4)

To experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of EMD for non stationary real life
vibration signal analysis, a shaker test was conducted on a rectangular cracked plate. In
the following, EMD is applied to analyze the local characteristics as a form of IMFs of
the vibration signal in time domain.
 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

IMF1 IMF2
0.05
0.05
A m p litu d e

Amplitude
0 0

-0.05
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 -0.05
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Datapoints Datapoints
IMF3 IMF4
0.05 0.02
A m plitude

Amplitude
0 0

-0.05
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 -0.02
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Datapoints
Datapoints
IMF5 IMF6
0.02 0.02
A m plitude

Amplitude
0 0

-0.02 -0.02
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Datapoints Datapoints

Fig 4.IMFs of the signal, generated by the EMD method.

Out of twelve IMFs, only higher frequency contents i.e, first six IMFs are shown in the
Figure 4. Once the IMFs are obtained, FFT is done on these IMFs to obtain the frequency
contents present in each IMF.
-3 Frequency Response of the IMFs -4 Frequency Response of the IMFs
x 10 x 10
1.5 8

6
Amplitude
Amplitude

1
4
0.5
2

0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
-3 -4
x 10 Frequency Response of the IMFs x 10 Frequency Response of the IMFs

2 X: 702
Amplitude

Amplitude

10 Y: 0.0007278

1 5

0 0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 0 200 400 600 800 1000
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)

-3 -3
x 10 Frequency Response of the IMFs Frequency Response of the IMFs
2.5
x 10
2 X: 100
8
Amplitude

X: 100
Amplitude

X: 300
1.5
Y: 0.002321
Y: 0.002127
6 Y: 0.008697
1 4
0.5 2

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 500 1000 1500
Frequency (Hz)
Frequency (Hz)

Fig 5.FFTs of the corresponding IMFs.

 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

6. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of Vibration signal (fig.5)

FFT is a mathematical technique where a time domain signal X (t) maps into frequency
domain X (ω). It is effective when it is applied to stationary and linear signals.

7. Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) of Vibration signal (fig.6)

When the signal is non-stationary in nature, Time-frequency analysis is then essential to

extract signal information. STFT assumes some portion of the signal as stationary and
performs FFT on these windowed segments.

Amplitude spectrogram of the signal

Frequency, Hz 2500
2000
1500 X: 0.32 Y: 778.1
Index: -94.92
1000 RGB: 1, 0.625, 0

500
0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Time, s

Fig 6. (i) FFT and(ii) STFT of the recorded time domain signal

8. Finite Element Method (FEM) result

FEM resultis taken from an earlier publication for a similar plate [9] to compare the
value of the natural frequencies obtained from the various signal processing methods.
The table represents the value of the natural frequency obtained from that FEM result,
below. Table 1. Natural frequency (Hz)of clamped plate having side cracks

Crack Angle Crack position Crack-length ratio Natural frequency

(c/b) (d/a) (Hz)
0 deg 0.5 0.6 720.9
 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

9. Comparison of the experimental results with FEM result

From the experiment,

eriment, the natural frequency of the cracked plate [9] are found by FFT,
STFT and EMD methods. In case of FFT, it is found 768.6 Hz. In case of STFT, it is
found 778.1 Hz.

800

750

700

650
FFT STFT EMD FEM

Figure 7.Comparative study.

Finally a close enough result has been found in the EMD process at the FFT of 4th IMF,
which is 702 Hz. So, comparative study shows the effectiveness
effectiveness of the EMD process. As
the natural frequency decreases due to the presence of crack; by obtaining the natural
frequency of a healthy plate
plate and comparing the result with this analysis,
analysis Empirical Mode
Decomposition process can detect the crack present in a plate.

10. Conclusions

In this preliminary research work, it is demonstrated that EMD can be used for
identification of structural natural frequencies very close to results obtained for FEM.
FE

11. Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial grant received from
f Naval Research
Board, DRDO for the sponsored project to carry out the research work.

12. References

1. Fan, W. and Qiao, P., Vibration-based

based damage identification methods:
m A review and
comparative study, Structural Health Monitoring, vol. 10, issue 1, pp. 83
83-111, 2011.
 National Conference on Condition Monitoring - 2015

2. Owolabi, G. M., Swamidas and S.J., Seshadri, R.,Crack detection in beams using
changes in frequencies and amplitudes of frequency response functions, Journal of
Sound and Vibration, vol. 265, issue 1, pp. 1-22, 2003.
3. Kim, J.T. and Stubbs, N., Crack Detection in Beam-Type Structures Using
Frequency Data, Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 259, issue 1, pp. 145-160,
2003.
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7. Huang, N.E., Shen, Z., Long, S.R., Wu, M.C., Shih, H.H., Zheng, Q., Yen, N.C.,
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8. Rai, V.K. and Mohanty, A.R., Bearing fault diagnosis using FFT of intrinsic mode
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