Localization of Breathing Crack in Beam-Like Structures Using Superharmonic Components Based on Singular Value Decomposition Approach

The identification of a breathing crack is a highly challenging inverse problem in structural health monitoring. A novel output-only diagnostic technique for breathing cracks is proposed in this paper based on the singular value decomposition (SVD). A new damage index based on the singular values of the harmonic time history response, related to the Fourier spectrum amplitude of the superharmonics, is presented for breathing crack localization. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed SVD-based approach are verified through both numerical and experimental studies.