Damage identification techniques via modal curvature analysis: Overview and comparison

This paper aims to compare several damage identification methods based on the analysis of modal curvature and related quantities (natural frequencies and modal strain energy) by evaluating their performances on the same test case, a damaged Euler-Bernoulli beam. Damage is modelled as a localized and uniform reduction of stiffness so that closed-form expressions of the mode-shape curvatures can be analytically computed and data accuracy, which affects final results, can be controlled. The selected techniques belong to two categories: one includes several methods that need reference data for detecting structural modifications due to damage, the second group, including the modified Laplacian operator and the fractal dimension, avoids the knowledge of the undamaged behavior for issuing a damage diagnosis. To explain better the different performances of the methods, the mathematical formulation has been revised in some cases so as to fit into a common framework where the underlying hypotheses are clearly stated. Because the various damage indexes are calculated on 'exact' data, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out with respect to the number of points where curvature information is available, to the position of damage between adjacent points, to the modes involved in the index computation. In this way, this analysis intends to point out comparatively the capability of locating and estimating damage of each method along with some critical issues already present with noiseless data. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.