Identification of damage in plates using full-field measurement with a continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer system

Abstract

An effective and reliable damage identification method for plates with a continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (CSLDV) system is proposed. A new constant-speed scan algorithm is proposed to create a two-dimensional (2D) scan trajectory and automatically scan a whole plate surface. Full-field measurement of the plate can be achieved by applying the algorithm to the CSLDV system. Based on the new scan algorithm, the demodulation method is extended from one dimension for beams to two dimensions for plates to obtain a full-field operating deflection shape (ODS) of the plate from velocity response measured by the CSLDV system. The full-field ODS of an associated undamaged plate is obtained by using polynomials with proper orders to fit the corresponding full-field ODS from the demodulation method. A curvature damage index (CDI) using differences between curvatures of ODSs (CODSs) associated with ODSs that are obtained by the demodulation method and the polynomial fit is proposed to identify damage. An auxiliary CDI obtained by averaging CDIs at different excitation frequencies is defined to further assist damage identification. An experiment of an aluminum plate with damage in the form of 10.5% thickness reduction in a damage area of 0.86% of the whole scan area is conducted to investigate the proposed method. Six frequencies close to natural frequencies of the plate and one randomly selected frequency are used as sinusoidal excitation frequencies. Two 2D scan trajectories, i.e., a horizontally moving 2D scan trajectory and a vertically moving 2D scan trajectory, are used to obtain ODSs, CODSs, and CDIs of the plate. The damage is successfully identified near areas with consistently high values of CDIs at different excitation frequencies along the two 2D scan trajectories; the damage area is also identified by auxiliary CDIs.