Experimental studies on damage detection of beam structures with wavelet transform

Experimental studies are reported for crack detection of a beam structure under a static displacement with the spatial wavelet transform. An invisible perturbation in the deflection profile of the beam at the crack position due to its existence would be induced. Such a small perturbation will be discerned or amplified through a wavelet transform such that a detection of crack location becomes possible practically. To realize this, the static profile of a cracked cantilever aluminum beam subjected to a static displacement at its free end is analyzed with Gabor wavelet to identify the crack. The damage detection of the beam with different crack depths is conducted. The spatial wavelet transform is proven to be effective in identifying the damage area even when the crack depth is around 26% of the thickness of the beam. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.