Papers by Author: Alessandra Tassotti

Abstract: The paper presents an experimental application of the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) to damage detection in steel beams. A damaged beam has been excited with a sinusoidal force, the acceleration response at points regularly spaced along the structure has been recorded and the relevant Proper Orthogonal Modes calculated. In this way it is possible to locate damage by comparing the measured dominant Proper Orthogonal Mode with a smoothed version of it which does not exhibit apparent peaks in correspondence with the damage. One of the principal advantages of the proposed damage detection technique is that it does not require vibration measurements to be performed on the undamaged structure. Moreover the ‘optimality’ of the proper orthogonal modes only requires the use of a few (one-two) of them which can be computed in real time during lab experiments or while the structure is functioning in the field.

Abstract: The paper describes an on-going research effort aimed at detecting the presence of delamination damage in composite panels based upon their higher-frequency structural response. Two alternative damage indexes are examined that facilitate the identification of the location and extent of delaminations. The damage indexes do not require vibration measurements to be performed on the undamaged structure. Use is made of the bending and twisting curvatures corresponding to the higher-frequency mode shapes that are post-processed via two different smoothing techniques. The modal data are obtained via finite element models based on Mindlin theory and including delaminations. These are introduced using a sub-laminate strategy that permits multiple damages to be modelled through the thickness. Various delamination sizes and locations are examined with a random noise superposed on the data in order to ascertain the degree of sensitivity of the damage index to the noise in the experimental data.