Experimental study of the substructure isolation method for local health monitoring

This paper extends and studies experimentally the substructure isolation method. Local health monitoring is significant for large and complex structures, since it costs less and can be easily implemented compared with global analysis. In contrast to other substructuring methods, in which the substructure is separated from the global structure, but coupled to it via the interface forces, the substructure isolation method isolates the substructure into an independent structure by placing virtual fixed supports on the interface. Model updating or damage identification can be then performed locally and precisely using the constructed responses of the isolated substructure and any of the existing methods aimed originally at global identification. This paper discusses and further extends the approach to improve its performance in real applications. A new type of virtual interface support (free support) is proposed for isolation. Relaxation of the original requirements concerning the type and placement of the isolating excitations is discussed. Previously, the method relied on the linearity of the global structure; here, only the substructure is required to be linear, the global structure besides the substructure can be non-linear, yielding, changing or unknown. A damaged cantilever beam is used in the experimental study. Up to three modified global structures with the same substructure are used to test the robustness of the isolation with respect to unknown modifications and non-linearities of the outside structure. Two typical global health monitoring methods are applied at the substructural level. A comparison with the results obtained from a generic substructure separation method is offered. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.