Crack Identification Using Optimization Technique

Abstract

It has been established that a crack has an important effect on the dynamic behavior of a structure. This effect depends mainly on the location and depth of the crack. To identify the location and depth of a crack in a structure. Nikolakopoulos et. al. used the intersection point of the superposed contours that correspond to the eigenfrequency caused by the crack presence. However the intersecting point of the superposed contours is not only difficult to find but also incorrect to calculate. A method is presented in this paper which uses optimization technique for the location and depth of the crack. The basic idea is to find parameters which use the structural eigenfrequencies on crack depth and location and optimization algorithm. With finite element model of the structure to calculate eigenfrequencies, it is possible to formulate the inverse problem in optimization format. Method of optimization is augmented lagrange multiplier method and search direction method is BFGS variable metric method and one dimensional search method is polynomial interpolation.