Damage detection of a rectangular plate by spatial wavelet based approach

This paper presents a technique for structure damage detection based on spatial wavelet analysis. Many damage detection methods require modal properties before and after damage. This method only needs the spatially distributed signals (e.g. the displacements or mode shapes) of the rectangular plate after damage. First, spatially distributed signals of the rectangular plate with damage are obtained by finite element method. The damaged region is represented as the elements with reduced stiffness. Then these spatially distributed signals are analyzed by wavelet transformation. It is observed that distributions of the wavelet coefficients can identify the damage position of rectangular plate by showing a peak at the position of the damage. It is also demonstrated that this method is very sensitivity to the damage size. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.