Crack Identification in Cantilever Beam under Moving Load Using Change in Curvature Shapes

Abstract

Cracks in structural components may ultimately lead to failure of the structure if not identified sufficiently early. This paper presents a crack-identification method based on time-domain. Captured time-domain data are processed into central difference approximation of displacement of each node (point) in the structure. Abnormally high central difference approximation of displacement of a node relative to those of its neighborhood points indicates a crack at that point. A suite of simulation experiments and numerical calculations was conducted to find out whether the proposed identification method could accurately identify the location of a crack in a cantilever beam under moving load compared to the location found by an exact solution method, and the outcomes indicated that it was as able as the analytical method. The proposed method is an FEA analysis, an approach familiar to virtually every engineer. Therefore, the relative amount of time and effort spent on developing the proposed method for a specific application is much less than those spent on developing an analytical method. The saved time and effort should enable more engineering personnel to perform routine checks on structural elements of their interest more simply and frequently.