Differential Evolution: An Inverse Approach for Crack Detection

This paper presents a damage detection technique combining analytical and experimental investigations on a cantilever aluminium alloy beam with a transverse surface crack. Firstly, the first three natural frequencies were determined using analytical methods based on strain energy release rate. Secondly, an experimental method was adopted to validate the theoretical findings. The damage location and severity assessment is the third stage and is formulated as a constrained optimisation problem and solved using the proposed differential evolution (DE) algorithm based on the measured and calculated first three natural frequencies as inputs. Numerical simulation studies indicate that the proposed method is robust and can be used effectively in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications.