Damage detection through structural intensity and vibration based techniques

The development systems for the Structural Health Monitoring has attracted considerable interest from several engineering fields during the last decades and more specifically in the aerospace one. In fact, the introduction of those systems could allow the transition of the maintenance strategy from a scheduled basis to a condition-based approach providing cost benefits for the companies. The research presented in this paper consists of a definition and next comparison of four methods applied to numerical measurements for the extraction of damage features. The first method is based on the determination of the Structural Intensity field at the on-resonance condition in order to acquire information about the dissipation of vibrational energy throughout the structure. The Damage Quantification Indicator and the Average Integrated Global Amplitude Criterion methods need the evaluation of the Frequency Response Function for a healthy plate and a damaged one. The main difference between these two parameters is their mathematical definition and therefore the accuracy of the scalar values provided as output. The fourth and last method is based on the Mode-shape Curvature, a FRF-based technique which requires the application of particular finite-difference schemes for the derivation of the curvature of the plate. All the methods have been assessed for several damage conditions (the shape, the extension and the intensity of the damage) on two test plates: an isotropic (steel) plate and a 4-plies composite plate.