• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.13-27
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• 2023

Fatigue crack is a fatal problem for steel structures. Early detection and maintenance can help extend the service life and prevent hazards. This paper presents the ultrasonic guided waves-based (UGWs-based) fatigue crack detection of a steel I-beam. The semi-analytical finite element model has been built to obtain the wave propagation characteristics. Damage indices in both time and frequency domains were analyzed by considering the characteristic variations of UGWs including the amplitude, phase angle, and wave packet energy. The pulse-echo and pitch-catch methods were combined in the detection scheme. Lab-scale experiments were conducted on welded steel I-beams to verify the proposed method. Results show that the damage indices based on the characteristic variations in the time domain can identify and localize the fatigue crack before it enters the rapid growth stage. The damage severity can be reasonably evaluated by analyzing the time-domain damage indices. Two nonlinear damage indices in the frequency domain give earlier warnings of the fatigue crack than the time-domain damage indices do. The identification results based on the above two nonlinear indices are found to be less consistent under various excitation frequencies. More robust nonlinear techniques needed to be searched and tested for early crack detection in steel I-beams in further study.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.1107-1132
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• 2015

A damage detection algorithm based on neuro fuzzy hybrid system is presented in this study for location and severity predictions of cracks in beam-like structures. A combination of eigenfrequencies and rotation deviation curves are utilized as input to the soft computing technique. Both single and multiple damage cases are considered. Theoretical expressions leading to modal properties of damaged beam elements are provided. The beam formulation is based on Euler-Bernoulli theory. The cracked section of beam is simulated employing discrete spring model whose compliance is computed from stress intensity factors of fracture mechanics. A hybrid neuro fuzzy technique is utilized to solve the inverse problem of crack identification. Two different neuro fuzzy systems including grid partitioning (GP) and subtractive clustering (SC) are investigated for the highlighted problem. Several error metrics are utilized for evaluating the accuracy of the hybrid algorithms. The study is the first in terms of 1) using the two models of neuro fuzzy systems in crack detection and 2) considering multiple damages in beam elements employing the fused neuro fuzzy procedures. At the end of the study, the developed hybrid models are tested by utilizing the noise-contaminated data. Considering the robustness of the models, they can be employed as damage identification algorithms in health monitoring of beam-like structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제2권6호
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• pp.481-498
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• 2005

A wavelet based approach is proposed for structural damage detection in beams, plate and delamination of composite plates. Wavelet theory is applied here for crack identification of a beam element with a transverse on edge non-propagating open crack. Finite difference method was used for generating a general displacement equation for the cracked beam in the first example. In the second and third example, damage is detected from the deformed shape of a loaded simply supported plate applying the wavelet theory. Delamination in composite plate is identified using wavelet theory in the fourth example. The main concept used is the breaking down of the dynamic signal of a structural response into a series of local basis function called wavelets, so as to detect the special characteristics of the structure by scaling and transformation property of wavelets. In the light of the results obtained, limitations of the proposed method as well as suggestions for future work are presented. Results show great promise of wavelet approach for damage detection and structural health monitoring.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.17-34
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• 2022

For steel structures, fatigue cracks are critical damage induced by long-term cycle loading and distortion effects. Vision-based crack detection can be a solution to ensure structural integrity and performance by continuous monitoring and non-destructive assessment. A critical issue is to distinguish cracks from other features in captured images which possibly consist of complex backgrounds such as handwritings and marks, which were made to record crack patterns and lengths during periodic visual inspections. This study presents a parametric study on image-based crack identification for orthotropic steel bridge decks using captured images with complicated backgrounds. Firstly, a framework for vision-based crack segmentation using the atrous convolution-based Deeplapv3+ network (ACDN) is designed. Secondly, features on crack images are labeled to build three databanks by consideration of objects in the backgrounds. Thirdly, evaluation metrics computed from the trained ACDN models are utilized to evaluate the effects of obstacles on crack detection results. Finally, various training parameters, including image sizes, hyper-parameters, and the number of training images, are optimized for the ACDN model of crack detection. The result demonstrated that fatigue cracks could be identified by the trained ACDN models, and the accuracy of the crack-detection result was improved by optimizing the training parameters. It enables the applicability of the vision-based technique for early detecting tiny fatigue cracks in steel structures.

• 대한토목학회논문집
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• 제26권4A호
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• pp.693-700
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• 2006

정적 손상 탐지방법은 동적 방법과 비교해서 실제 적용하기에 단순하고 효과적이다. 본 논문에서는 정적데이타를 이용하는 방법으로 변위, 처짐각, 곡률을 이용한 강박스 교량의 손상 탐지 방법에 대해서 연구하였다. 변위는 유한요소 해석에서 얻고, 처짐각과 곡률은 변위로부터 중앙차분법을 이용하여 구하였다. 손상되지 않은 경우와 손상된 경우의 응답차의 절대값으로 손상의 위치를 탐지하였다. 손상은 박스의 모서리 균열을 singular 요소를 사용하여 직접 모델링하여, 실질적인 거동을 분석하였다. 해석 결과 응답차의 절대값으로 손상의 위치를 탐지하기에 매우 효과적이었다.

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2013년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.320-324
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• 2013

A crack identification method using an equivalent bending stiffness for cracked beam and committee of neural networks is presented. The equivalent bending stiffness is constructed based on an energy method for a straight thin-walled pipe, which has a through-the-thickness crack, subjected to bending. Several numerical analysis for a steel cantilever pipe using the equivalent bending stiffness are carried out to extract the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the cracked beam. The extracted modal properties are used in constructing a training patterns of a neural network. The input to the neural network consists of the modal properties and the output is composed of the crack location and size. Multiple neural networks are constructed and each individual network is trained independently with different initial synaptic weights. Then, the estimated crack locations and sizes from different neural networks are averaged. Experimental crack detection is carried out for 3 damage cases using the proposed method, and the identified crack locations and sizes agree reasonably well with the exact values.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.221-235
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• 2022

Among nondestructive damage detection methods, impedance-based methods have been recognized as an effective technique for damage identification in many kinds of structures. This paper proposes a method to detect cracks in metal structures by combining electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) responses and artificial neural networks (ANN). Firstly, the theories of EMI responses and impedance-based damage detection methods are described. Secondly, the reliability of numerical simulations for impedance responses is demonstrated by comparing to pre-published results for an aluminum beam. Thirdly, the proposed method is used to detect cracks in the beam. The RMSD (root mean square deviation) index is used to alarm the occurrence of the cracks, and the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) ANN is employed to identify the location and size of the cracks. The selection of the effective frequency range is also investigated. The analysis results reveal that the proposed method accurately detects the cracks' occurrence, location, and size in metal structures.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제28권10호
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• pp.1467-1474
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• 2004

In this study, a new damage identification method for beam-like structures with a fatigue crack is proposed. which does not require comparative measurement on an intact structure but require several measurements at different level of excitation forces on the cracked structure. The idea comes from the fact that dynamic behavior of a structure with a fatigue crack changes with the level of the excitation force. The 2$^{nd}$ spatial derivatives of frequency response functions along the longitudinal direction of a beam are used as the sensitive indicator of crack existence. Then, weighting function is employed in the averaging process in frequency domain to account for the modal participation of the differences between the dynamic behavior of a beam with a fatigue crack at the low excitation and one at the high excitation. Subsequently, a damage index is defined such that the location and level of the crack may be identified. It is shown from the analysis of vibration measurements in this study that comparison of frequency response characteristics of a beam with a single fatigue crack at different level of excitation forces enables an effective detection of the crack.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.47-65
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• 2012

The presence of crack-like defects in mechanical and structural elements produces failures during their service life that in some cases can be catastrophic. So, the early detection of the fatigue cracks is particularly important because they grow rapidly, with a propagation velocity that increases exponentially, and may lead to long out-of-service periods, heavy damages of machines and severe economic consequences. In this work, a non-destructive method for the detection and identification of elliptical cracks in shafts based on stress wave propagation is proposed. The propagation of a stress wave in a cracked shaft has been numerically analyzed and numerical results have been used to detect and identify the crack through the genetic algorithm optimization method. The results obtained in this work allow the development of an on-line method for damage detection and identification for cracked shaft-like components using an easy and portable dynamic testing device.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.321-331
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• 2010

A new technique is proposed for bridge structural damage detection based on spatial wavelet analysis of the time history obtained from vehicle body moving over the bridge, which is different from traditional detection techniques based on the bridge response. A simply-supported Bernoulli-Euler beam subjected to a moving spring-mass unit is established, with the crack in the beam simulated by modeling the cracked section as a rotational spring connecting two undamaged beam segments, and the equations of motion for the system is derived. By using the transfer matrix method, the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the cracked beam are determined. The responses of the beam and the moving spring-mass unit are obtained by modal decomposition theory. The continuous wavelet transform is calculated on the displacement time histories of the sprung-mass. The case study result shows that the damage location can be accurately determined and the method is effective.