Vibration-based hidden damage imaging using stereo cameras with digital image correlation

This paper explores a full-field non-contact optical sensing technique using a stereo camera for imaging hidden damage based on vibration-based damage detection methodology in structural health monitoring. The technique utilizes a pair of digital cameras to capture dynamic operational deflection shapes (ODSs) over the region of interest (ROI) of a structure’s surface via digital image correlation (DIC) when subjected to vibrational excitation. This research overcomes bottlenecks in using high vibration modes for imaging the hidden damage area by (1) applying DIC to operational modal analysis with simple pick-peaking techniques to gather natural frequencies and operational mode shapes in plate structures, while (2) using wavelet analysis to reveal the image of the damage region as a means for baseline-free global damage quantification. In the feasibility study, four cases with two aluminum plates with large damage regions were investigated with a vibration shaker generating a frequency sweep up to 1 kHz. The stereo camera imaged the speckled surface of the plate with white light. Once the dynamic ODSs in the ROI were observed using DIC, the natural frequencies and associated operational mode shapes were extracted using a peak-picking technique in the frequency spectrum. Natural frequencies and operational mode shapes from finite element analysis correlated well with the experimental observations from three-dimensional DIC for all 12 vibration modes respectively. A wavelet transform mode shape curvature (WT-MSC) technique to obtain the modal shape curvature via a two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform with a Mexican Hat analyzing wavelet was then implemented on each of the first 12 vibration mode shapes. A damage image condition that incorporates all weighted wavelet coefficients is proposed to image the damage region. The hidden damage was visualized clearly with WT-MSC, as the technique is much less sensitive to noise than the use of MSC alone, and the use of high vibration modes exhibiting larger mode shape curvatures provided a greater sensitivity for imaging the damage region. Hidden damage regions were successfully visualized in all four cases.