Vibration Based Damage Detection

1 Methods

Several damage indexes derived from damage-induced changes in modal parameters have
been presented during the last decades. These approaches are based on the assumption that
conventionally observed vibration quantities, such as response time-histories and global
vibration characteristics, are functions of the structure's physical parameters (mass, damping,
boundary conditions and stiffness). VBDD approaches are classified and describe below.

1.1 Modal data

1.1.1 Natural frequency change
Natural frequency-based methods use the natural frequency change as the basic feature for
damage detection. Damage identification techniques based on change in natural frequency have
been substantially established (Loland and Dodds 1976, Cawley and Adams 1979, Salawu 1997
and Doebling et al. 1996, Liang's and Morassi's Kim and Stubbs 2003).

Stubbs et al. (1990) and Stubbs and Osegueda (1990a, 1990b) developed a sensitivity
approach for identifying damage based on Cawley and Adams' work (1979). At the elemental
level, Hearn and Testa (1991) developed a similar damage detection approach. Cawley and
Adams' work was extended by Friswell et al. (1994). Adams and Coppendale assessed the
effects of temperature on structural natural frequencies (1976).

Gudmundson (1982), developed an explicit expression for the resonance frequencies of a

wide range of damaged structures using an energy-based perturbation technique. Liang et
al(1991) proposed a technique for detecting crack location and assessing damage size in a
uniform beam under simply supported or cantilever boundary conditions based on three bending
natural frequencies.

Messina et al. (1998) suggested the multiple damage location assurance criterion (MDLAC)
as a correlation coefficient by developing an approach to estimate the magnitude of damages in
a structure. Zhong et al. (2008) recently suggested a new method which is based on auxiliary
mass spatial probing using the spectral centre correction method (SCCM) to provide a simple
solution for damage identification by considering the output-only time history of beam-like
structures.
 Damage detection methods based on frequency changes can be very precise but are not very
sensitive to damages because natural frequencies are very sensitive to changes in temperature
and other environmental conditions. These methods cannot distinguish between damage at
symmetrical locations in a symmetric structure. The number of measured eigenfrequencies is
generally lower than that of unknown model parameters, resulting in a non-unique solution.

1.1.2 Modal Damping Changes

Damping has been used for damage assessment for as long as natural frequency shifts.
Brownjohn and Steele (1979) have been among the first to detect damage with damping ratios.
Salane and Baldwin (1990) test a composite bridge model and a composite highway bridge and
discovered that modal damping ratios in the laboratory model decreased after the flange was
cut, whereas it increased initially and then decreased in the bridge.

Ndambi (2002) used it as a damage index for pre-stressed concrete beam structures. Keye
(2006) used damping ratios to identify delamination damage in a carbon fiber reinforced
polymer composite panel. The damping ratio changes between the undamaged and damaged
models were estimated using the Rayleigh damping assumption, and the maximum correlation
with the measured damping ratio changes indicated a possible damage.

The shortage of research on damping-based damage detection can be ascribed to both a lack
of precision in calculating damping ratios from system identification approaches and an
apparent lack of consistent correlation between system damping and damage.

1.1.3 Methods based on change of mode shapes

(a) Direct change in mode shape

The usage mode shapes and their derivatives as a fundamental feature for damage detection
over natural frequencies is more advantageous because mode shapes contain local information,
which makes more sensitive to local damages and can be used directly in multiple damage
detection. moreover, unlike natural frequencies, mode shapes are less responsive to
environmental effects such as temperature Farrar (1997).

To identify damage, single-number measures of mode shape changes have been proposed.
The Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC) (Ewins, 2000) is a common single-number measure
that indicates whether two sets of mode shapes have the same shape. It is necessary to identify
the correlated mode pairs before and after damage, must be identified. The MAC value, which
ranges from 0 to 1, therefore represents the degree of correlation between two modes.
 The Co-ordinate Modal Assurance Criterion (COMAC) differs from the MAC by providing
local information while also combining information from different modes. (COMAC) is
connected to the structure's DOF rather than the mode numbers.

(1.1)

(1.2)

where q denotes one degree of freedom and the superscripts "u" and "d" denote the undamaged
and damaged states, respectively. The value should be close to 1 for a good mode correlation
or coordinate correlation.

Changes in mode shapes were found to be a more sensitive indicator of damage than changes
in resonant frequencies for a shell structure by Srinivasan and Kot (1992). These changes were
assessed by comparing the damaged and undamaged mode shapes MAC values. According to
Ko et al. (1994), the COMAC could be utilized to detect the damage, but the MAC could not.

Salawu and Williams (1995) tested a multi-span RC highway bridge before and after
structural repairs. To identify the existence and location of repairs, the MAC and COMAC were
utilized and found that COMAC makes it relatively easy to detect damage in a structural
model, although it has less physical basis than other approaches.

Unless the damage is severe, direct comparison of the pre- and post-damage mode shapes
has been found ineffective in identifying the damage location (Farrar and Jauregui, 1996).

(b) Change in mode shape curvature

Many researchers have demonstrated that, even with high density mode shape measurement,
the displacement mode shape is not highly sensitive to small damage (Ewins,1999 and Salawu,
1994).The mode shape curvature (MSC) is being examined as a potential feature for damage
detection in an effort to improve the sensitivity of mode shape data to damage. For beams, the
curvature k and bending strain e are directly connected by y.

(1.3)
where R is the radius of curvature and y is the perpendicular distance from the point of interest
to the neutral axis.

Pandey et al. (1991), introduced the use of mode shape curvatures for damage identification.
During their research, they discovered that modal curvature was a considerably more sensitive
damage indicator than MAC or COMAC values. The idea is based on the fact that when flexural
stiffness decreases, curvature increases. The mode shape curvatures are obtained by using a
central difference approximation as

(1.4)

where φqi is the ith modal displacement at measurement point q and h is the length of elements.

Salawu and Williams (1994) examined the performance of curvature and displacement mode
shapes for damage detection and proved MSC as a sensitive indicator of damage.

Chance et al. (1994) discovered that calculating curvature numerically from mode shapes
resulted in unacceptable inaccuracies. Instead, they used measured strain to determine curvature
directly, which provides more accuracy.

(c) Change of modal strain energy

Modal strain energy, like modal shape, is sensitive to local damage and may thus be used to
locate damage. The strain energy of a Bernoulli-Euler beam concept was introduced by Stubb
set al. (1992):

(1.5)

where EI is the flexural rigidity of the beam, and L is the total length of the beam.
For a particular ith mode shape, φi(x), the jth member contribution to the mode is

(1.6)

where aj and aj+1 are nodal coordinates of the beam element. Fractional modal strain energy
change is used for damage identification in this method.

Shi et al. (1998) developed an MSE-based damage indicator (DI) for damage location based
on the change of MSE in each mode element. The DI at sub-region j can be obtained by :
 (1.7)

where Fij and Fij are the fractional strain energy of undamaged and damaged beam for the ith
mode at sub-region j; i and i are the curvature mode shapes of undamaged and damaged beam
for the ith mode, respectively; and m is the number of measured bending modes. Then, assuming
that the damage indices at different sub-regions is a normally distributed random variable, a
normalized damage index (NDI) Z at sub-region j can be obtained using

(1.8)

where β and ϭβ represent the mean and standard deviation of the damage indices j, respectively.
Usually, a damage detection criterion can be set as Zj (NDI) larger than 2. Cornwell et al. (1997)
extended the DI approach for 1D beam-type structures to plate-type structures.

Chen et al. (1999) employed a two-dimensional strain energy distribution to identify damage
on an aluminum plate and a composite plate that had been exposed to various damage scenarios.
The method was demonstrated to be successful for detecting damage on plate.

Damage detection systems based on mode shape changes and their derivatives can offer
spatial information on structural damage location, but they have significant application
limitations. To begin, an accurate estimation of mode shapes and mode shape curvatures
requires a dense array of measurement points. The statistical variation in mode shape is larger
than in modal frequencies. The mode shape curvature approaches are unsuitable for structures
with complex configurations.

1.1.4 Structural Flexibility Change

For damage detection, the natural flexibility method applies the modal flexibility matrix as
a modal derivative method. The resulting modal flexibility matrix is written as follows
(Pandey and Biswas, 1994, Pandey and Biswas, 1995):

(1.9)
where Φ is the modal matrix, Λ is the diagonal eigenvalue matrix, ω is modal frequency, ϕi is
the ith mode shape and m is the number of measured mode shapes. The mode contribution to
the flexibility matrix decreases as the frequency increases, as shown by Equation (1.9). As a
result, rather than the higher frequency modes, which are harder to measure in practice, a decent
approximation of the flexibility matrix may be derived from a few lower modes.

According to Raghavendrachar and Aktan (1992), flexibility is more susceptible to local

damages than frequencies and mode shapes. A numerical simulation of a 14-bay planer truss
using a flexibility-based damage locating vector (DLV) method developed by Lu and Gao
(2005) has shown the capability of this method for detecting damage at both single and multiple
damage scenarios.

This approach, along with numerous other methods developed by Farrar and Jauregui, was
used to detect artificial cuts in the I-40 bridge over the Rio Grande in New Mexico (1996). The
results showed that this method did not work in practice.