Numerical Study for Global Detection of Cracks Embedded in Beams

Damage reduces the flexural stiffness of a structure, thereby altering its dynamic response, specifically the natural frequency, damping values, and the mode shapes associated with each natural frequency. Considerable effort has been put into obtaining a correlation between the changes in these parameters and the location and amount of the damage in beam structures. Most numerical research employed elements with reduced beam dimensions or material properties such as modulus of elasticity to simulate damage in the beam. This approach to damage simulation neglects the non-linear effect that a crack has on the different modes of vibration and their corresponding natural frequencies. In this paper, finite element modeling techniques are utilized to directly represent an embedded crack. The results of the dynamic analysis are then compared to the results of the dynamic analysis of the reduced modulus finite element model. Different modal parameters including both mode shape displacement and mode shape curvature are investigated to determine the most sensitive indicator of damage and its location.