• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.135-146
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• 2010

This paper presents the perspective of the Structural Mechanics program of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) on the damage assessment of structures for the period 2006-2009 when the author was serving as Program Manager at AFOSR. It is found that damage assessment of structures plays a very important role in assuring the safety and operational readiness of US Air Force fleet. The current fleet has many aging aircraft, which poses a considerable challenge for the operators and maintainers. The nondestructive evaluation technology is rather mature and able to detect damage with considerable reliability during the periodic maintenance inspections. The emerging structural health monitoring methodology has great potential, because it will use on-board damage detection sensors and systems, will be able to offer on-demand structural health bulletins. Considerable fundamental and applied research is still needed to enable the development, implementation, and dissemination of structural health monitoring technology.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.435-457
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• 2015

The most widely known form of multifunctional aircraft structure is smart structures for structural health monitoring (SHM). The aim is to provide automated systems whose purposes are to identify and to characterize possible damage within structures by using a network of actuators and sensors. Unfortunately, environmental and operational variability render many of the proposed damage detection methods difficult to successfully be applied. In this paper, an original robust damage detection approach using output-only vibration data is proposed. It is based on independent component analysis and matrix perturbation analysis, where an analytical threshold is proposed to get rid of statistical assumptions usually performed in damage detection approach. The effectiveness of the proposed SHM method is demonstrated numerically using finite element simulations and experimentally through a conformal load-bearing antenna structure and composite plates instrumented with piezoelectric ceramic materials.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제63권6호
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• pp.825-835
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• 2017

Significant improvements to methodologies on structural damage detection (SDD) have emerged in recent years. However, many methods are related to inversion computation which is prone to be ill-posed or ill-conditioning, leading to low-computing efficiency or inaccurate results. To explore a more accurate solution with satisfactory efficiency, a PSO-INM algorithm, combining particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and an improved Nelder-Mead method (INM), is proposed to solve multi-sample objective function defined based on Bayesian inference in this study. The PSO-based algorithm, as a heuristic algorithm, is reliable to explore solution to SDD problem converted into a constrained optimization problem in mathematics. And the multi-sample objective function provides a stable pattern under different level of noise. Advantages of multi-sample objective function and its superior over traditional objective function are studied. Numerical simulation results of a two-storey frame structure show that the proposed method is sensitive to multi-damage cases. For further confirming accuracy of the proposed method, the ASCE 4-storey benchmark frame structure subjected to single and multiple damage cases is employed. Different kinds of modal identification methods are utilized to extract structural modal data from noise-contaminating acceleration responses. The illustrated results show that the proposed method is efficient to exact locations and extents of induced damages in structures.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.63-69
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• 2007

Once assessment of material failure characteristics is captured precisely in a unified way, it can bedirectly incorporated into the structural failure assessment under various loading environments, based on the theoretical backgrounds so called Local Approach to Fracture. The aim of this study is to develop a numerical fatigue test method by continuum damage mechanics applicable for the assessment of structural integrity throughout crack initiation and structural failure based on the Local Approach to Fracture. The generalized elasto-visco-plastic constitutive equation, which can consider the internal damage evolution behavior, is developed and employed in the 3-D FEA code in order to numerically evaluate the material and/or structural responses. Explicit information of the relationships between the mechanical properties and material constants, which are required for the mechanical constitutive and damage evolution equations for each material, are implemented in numerical fatigue test method. The material constants selected from constitutive equations are used directly in the failure assessment of material and/or structures. The performance of the developed system has been evaluated with assessing the S-N diagram of stainless steel materials.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.459-486
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• 2013

A novel damage classification method based on wavelet packet transform and statistical analysis is developed in this study for structural health monitoring. The response signal of a structure under an impact load is normalized and then decomposed into wavelet packet components. Energies of these wavelet packet components are then calculated to obtain the energy distribution. Statistical similarity comparison based on an F-test is used to classify the structure from changes in the wavelet packet energy distribution. A statistical indicator is developed to describe the damage extent of the structure. This approach is applied to the test results from simply supported reinforced concrete beams in the laboratory. Cases with single and two damages are created from static loading, and accelerations of the structure from under impact loads are analyzed. Results show that the method can be used with no reference baseline measurement and model for the damage monitoring and assessment of the structure with alarms at a specified significance level.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.112-122
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• 2012

The damage analysis of coastal structure is very important as it involves many design parameters to be considered for the better and safe design of structure. In the present study experimental data for non-reshaped berm breakwater are collected from Marine Structures Laboratory, Department of Applied Mechanics and Hydraulics, NITK, Surathkal, India. Soft computing techniques like Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference system (ANFIS) models are constructed using experimental data sets to predict the damage level of non-reshaped berm breakwater. The experimental data are used to train ANN, SVM and ANFIS models and results are determined in terms of statistical measures like mean square error, root mean square error, correla-tion coefficient and scatter index. The result shows that soft computing techniques i.e., ANN, SVM and ANFIS can be efficient tools in predicting damage levels of non reshaped berm breakwater.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제13권6호
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• pp.975-991
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• 2014

The objective of this study is to develop a reliable method for locating cracks in a beam using data fusion of fractal dimension features of operating deflection shapes. The Katz's fractal dimension curve of an operating deflection shape is used as a basic feature of damage. Like most available damage features, the Katz's fractal dimension curve has a notable limitation in characterizing damage: it is unresponsive to damage near the nodes of structural deformation responses, e.g., operating deflection shapes. To address this limitation, data fusion of Katz's fractal dimension curves of various operating deflection shapes is used to create a sophisticated fractal damage feature, the 'overall Katz's fractal dimension curve'. This overall Katz's fractal dimension curve has the distinctive capability of overcoming the nodal effect of operating deflection shapes so that it maximizes responsiveness to damage and reliability of damage localization. The method is applied to the detection of damage in numerical and experimental cases of cantilever beams with single/multiple cracks, with high-resolution operating deflection shapes acquired by a scanning laser vibrometer. Results show that the overall Katz's fractal dimension curve can locate single/multiple cracks in beams with significantly improved accuracy and reliability in comparison to the existing method. Data fusion of fractal dimension features of operating deflection shapes provides a viable strategy for identifying damage in beam-type structures, with robustness against node effects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제3권5호
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• pp.411-427
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• 1995

The most known continuum damage theories for brittle structures are suitable to model the degradation of the material due to the deformation process and the consequent initiation of a macro-crack. Nevertheless, they are not able to describe the propagation of the crack that leads, eventually, to the breakage of the structure into parts that undergo rigid body motion. This paper presents a theory, formulated from formal arguments of Continuum Mechanics, that may describe not only the degradation but also the fracture of elastic structures. The modeling of such a discontinuous phenomenon through a continuous theory is possible by taking a cohesion variable, related with the links between material points, as an additional degree of kinematical freedom. The possibilities of the proposed theory are discussed through examples.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제54권4호
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• pp.711-723
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• 2015

This study investigates the identification of added mass and its location in the glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) beam structures. The main emphasis of this paper is to ascertain the importance of inclusion of rotational degrees of freedom (dofs) in the introduction of added mass or damage identification. Two identification indices that include the rotational dofs have been introduced in this paper: the modal force index (MFI) and the modal rotational curvature index (MRCI). The MFI amplifies damage signature using undamaged numerical stiffness matrix which is related to changes in the altered mode shapes from the original mode shapes. The MRCI is obtained by using a higher derivative of rotational mode shapes. Experimental and numerical results are compared with the existing methods leading to a conclusion that the contributions of the rotational modes play a key role in the identification of added mass. The authors believe that the similar results are likely in the case of damage identification also.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.301-308
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• 2010

Quest for reliability of hydraulic runners is a concern for all mature electricity producers. The fatigue damage caused by dynamics loads is frequently the root cause of runner failure. This paper presents the damage tolerance approach based on fracture mechanics as the method chosen by Alstom and Hydro-Qu$\acute{e}$bec to predict effects of damage on runner lifetime and consequently to be use as a design method. This is sustained by a research on fracture mechanics properties of runner materials and by recommendations on the strategy to define a safety margin for design. The acquired knowledge permits to identify potential improvement of the runner lifetime without significant cost increase, like being more specific on some chemical composition or heat treatment.