Nondestructive Damage Testing of Beam Structure Based on Vibration Response Signal Analysis

Nondestructive damage-testing technology based on vibration signal analysis makes full use of the response characteristics of wave and energy. With the advantages of wide bandwidths of response frequency and high sensitivity, the nondestructive testing technology based on vibration signal analysis has a superiority in the application for the detection and characterization of structural defects, and has become one of the important methods for the nondestructive testing of structural material defects and damage. This paper presents a novel method of detection localization and quantitative analysis for local damage in beam structures, based on the response analysis of vibration signals. A damage-detection and -identification algorithm based on a unscented Kalman filter (UKF) was designed, which greatly reduces the computational workload in the process of damage identification over that in conventional methods. The method presented in this paper has significances to widen the application scope of the nondestructive testing method, and increase the recognition efficiency and effectiveness of this kind of method in engineering.