Tikhonov's regularization approach in mode shape curvature analysis applied to damage detection

In this paper an on-going research effort aimed at detecting and localizing damage in plate-like structures by using mode shape curvature based damage detection algorithm is described. The proposed damage index uses exclusively mode shape curvature data from the damaged structure. This method was originally developed for beam-like structures. In this paper, the method is generalized to plate-like structures which are characterized by two-dimensional mode shape curvature. To calculate mode shape curvatures from the measured mode shapes, three approaches are proposed: the first one is the well-known central difference approximation, the other two are classical approaches based on Tikhonov's regularization technique with smoothing functional. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed damage detection algorithms are demonstrated experimentally on an aluminium plate containing mill-cut damage. The validity of the method is assessed by comparing the identification results of the experimental test case to the results obtained from the simulated test case. The modal frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes of the aluminium plate are obtained via finite element models for numerical simulations and by using a scanning laser vibrometer (SLV) for the experimental study.