An application of operational deflection shapes and spatial filtration for damage detection

In the paper, the authors propose the application of operational deflection shapes (ODS) for the detection of structural changes in technical objects. The ODS matrix is used to formulate the spatial filter that is further used for damage detection as a classical modal filter (Meirovitch and Baruh 1982, Zhang et al. 1990). The advantage of the approach lies in the fact that no modal analysis is required, even on the reference spatial filter formulation and other components apart from structural ones can be filtered (e.g. harmonics of rotational velocity). The proposed methodology was tested experimentally on a laboratory stand, a frame-like structure, excited from two sources: an impact hammer, which provided a wide-band excitation of all modes, and an electro-dynamic shaker, which simulated a harmonic component in the output spectra. The damage detection capabilities of the proposed method were tested by changing the structural properties of the model and comparing the results with the original ones. The quantitative assessment of damage was performed by employing a damage index (DI) calculation. Comparison of the output of the ODS filter and the classical modal filter is also presented and analyzed in the paper. The closing section of the paper describes the verification of the method on a real structure - a road viaduct.