Beam Damage Detection Under a Moving Load Using Random Decrement Technique and Savitzky- Golay Filter

Area of Science:

• Structural Health Monitoring
• Vibration-Based Damage Detection

Background:

• Structural damage detection is crucial for infrastructure safety.
• Existing methods often require baseline data or knowledge of excitation forces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel two-stage, output-only damage detection method.
• To introduce a new energy-based damage index for damage quantification.
• To develop a baseline-free damage detection technique.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the Random Decrement Technique (RDT) to obtain Random Decrement Signatures (RDSs).
• Applying the Savitzky-Golay filter (SGF) for signal processing.
• Employing an energy-based damage index and Gaussian curve fitting for damage assessment.

Main Results:

• The method accurately locates and quantifies damage on a simply supported beam.
• The technique is effective even with varying load velocities and in the presence of noise.
• Successful baseline-free damage detection was demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The proposed energy-based damage index offers a robust solution for structural damage detection.
• The method's independence from baseline data and load characteristics enhances its practical applicability.
• The technique shows resilience to noise and velocity variations, making it suitable for real-world scenarios.