Vibration-based damage detection in plates by using time series analysis

This paper deals with the problem for vibration health monitoring (VHM) in structures with nonlinear dynamic behaviour. It aims to introduce two viable VHM methods that use large amplitude vibrations and are based on nonlinear time series analysis. The methods suggested explore some changes in the state space geometry/distribution of structural dynamic response with damage and their use for damage detection purposes. One of the methods uses the statistical distribution of state space points on the attractor of a vibrating structure, while the other one is based on the Poincaré map of the state space projected dynamic response. In this paper both methods are developed and demonstrated for a thin vibrating plate. The investigation is based on finite element modelling of the plate vibration response. The results obtained demonstrate the influence of damage on the local dynamic attractor of the plate state space and the applicability of the proposed strategies for damage assessment. The approach taken in this study and the suggested VHM methods are rather generic and permit development and applications for other more complex nonlinear structures.