• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.4
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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.