Probability of Fault Location in a Beam Structure Using the Spectral Element Method and the Spatial Wavelet Analysis

The aim of the work is to develop a procedure allowing the test engineer to determine the probability of finding a crack in a beam structure. The procedure is based on the use of wavelet analysis and the simulation is performed by taking advantage of spectral elements to represent accurately the dynamic behaviour of beam structures in the high frequency range. In this context, numerical analyses are performed with the final scope of simulating a real testing environment: measurement error is considered and spectral elements are used so as to avoid influencing the capacity of the procedure with regard to solving the inverse problem. In this article the relation between the excitation frequency and the probability of locating the fault is shown. In particular, it is demonstrated by simulation that the probability of correctly determining the fault location increases with the excitation frequency.