Frequency shift curve based nondestructive damage detection method

for beam like structures

Zhang Yao, Xiang Zhihai
*

Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University
Beijing, 100084, P. R. China

Abstract
Vibration based non-destructive damage detection methods play an important role in
the maintenance of beam-like structures such as bridges. However, most of them
require accurate measurement of structural dynamic properties like mode shapes,
which restricts the use of these methods. This paper gives the theoretical explanation
of the damage detection method based on frequency shift curve of the structure with
auxiliary mass and it is demonstrated that the nth frequency shift curve was equivalent
to the nth mode shape square. Two new damage detection indices were proposed
similar to the gapped smoothing method and global fitting method which are widely
used in mode shape and mode shape curvature based damage detection methods.
Numerical simulation and a simple experiment validated the theoretical explanation of
the equivalence of frequency shift curve and mode shape square and the efficiency of
the new indices. Compared with traditional methods, this method is more convenient
by avoiding lots of sensors fixed on the structure and provides more reliable results
since the frequency measurement is more accurate and less contaminated by
experimental noise than mode shape.
1. Introduction

*
Corresponding author: Tel.: +86-10-62796873; Fax. +86-10-62772902.
Email address: xiangzhihai@tsinghua.edu.cn (Zhihai Xiang)
Vibration based non-destructive damage detection methods have been widely studied
for decades as global damage detection techniques [1-5]. Almost all these methods are
based on the structural dynamic properties, such as natural frequencies, mode shapes
and damping. Pandey et al. [6, 7] proposed the mode shape curvature (MSC) method
and the flexibility matrix (FM) method. Stubbs et al. [8] demonstrated the strain
energy method to be effective in locating damages. Based on MSC and FM, Zhang
and Aktan [9] defined the flexibility curvature index. These methods were validated
effective by numerical simulations and experiments in Lab in many literatures if the
quality of mode shapes can be guaranteed. Although people have spent much effort to
improve the mode shape acquisition methods, the accuracy of measurement of mode
shapes is not as ideal as that of natural frequencies. And nearly all these works require
reference or information of undamaged dynamic model. To avoid the use of
information of undamaged structures and improved the effectiveness of damage
detection approaches based on mode shape and mode shape curvature, Ratcliffe [10]
proposed a gapped smoothing method (GSM) using modified laplacian operator on
mode shape curvature; M-K.Yoon et al. [11] extended the GSM and suggested a
global fitting method (GFM). Nevertheless, no matter forced vibration or ambient
vibration, lots of sensors fixed on the beam-like structure are necessary and a certain
eigenvalue or singular value problem has to be solved, which bring troubles in
practice.
Recently, Fang and Perera [12] suggested using the power mode shape which is equal
to the mode shape square for early beam-like structure damage identification. They
proposed the power mode shape curvature (PMSC) index and power flexibility (PF)
index which were similar to the MSC and FM to locate damages. These new indices
were also demonstrated as effective as MSC and FM. Therefore, the mode shape
square could be used to substitute mode shape in most mode shape based damage
detection methods. Zhong et al. [13] proposed a novel approach based on additional
mass spatial probing by using the output-only time history of beam-like structures.
The spectral center correction method (SCCM) was proposed to extract highly
accurate natural frequencies. The derivatives of natural frequencies versus additional
mass position curve was plotted to locate the damage. This method was based on the
response only and used the very basic testing instrumentation. However, the work was
focused on the SCCM and only verification of the numerical simulation was provided.
Furthermore, similar to MSC, the error of derivatives calculated by difference
seriously decreased the efficiency in practice although the frequency which could be
measured more accurately was used and derivatives showed good performance in
numerical simulation.
Inspired by the additional mass spatial probing method and the power mode shape
method, this paper firstly tried to give a theoretical explanation to illustrate the
equivalence of the mode shape square and curve of the reciprocal of the natural
frequencies square versus the location where the additional mass is fixed (FSC) and
this was also the theoretical basic of the response-only method for damage detection
with auxiliary mass spatial probing proposed by Zhong[13]. Then two damage indices
based on the FSC by using the modified GSM and GFM were proposed since mode
shape square (Power Mode Shape) have been proven effective in structural damage
detection and the modified GSM and GFM [10, 11] could help to avoid the use of
information of undamaged structures and improve the efficiency by eliminating the
effect of error brought by the difference operation. These two new indices had been
demonstrated ideal in damage detection by both numerical simulation and a simple
experiment. On the other hand, this method avoided lots of sensors fixed on the
structure and provided more reliable results since the frequency measurement was
more accurate and less contaminated by experimental noise than mode shape.
The following text is organized as follows: Section 2 presented the theoretical
explanation of the equivalence of the mode shape square and the FSC by a modal of
Euler beam and proposed two damage indices. Section 3 gave some numerical
examples to validate this explanation and shows the potential of the indices for
damage detection. Section 4 provided a simply experiment verification. Finally,
conclusions and discussions were presented in Section 5.

2. Theory
The additional mass fixed on a beam-like structure will change the natural frequencies
of the new system and the curve of the reciprocal of the natural frequencies square
versus the location where the additional mass is fixed (frequency shift curve) could be
illustrated equivalent to the mode shape square. Then two damage detection indices
are proposed based on FSC similar to the GSM and GFM in Ref. [10, 11].
2.1 Theoretical explanation of the equivalence of mode shape square and FSC
A modal of Euler beam with a spring-mass system is shown in Fig.1. In this model,
the mass M is supported on a spring of stiffness k at position
0
x , and the stiffness
k is assumed quite large. This beam has bending stiffness EI and mass m in unit
length. For simplicity, some practical factors like damping are temporarily ignored
here.

l
0
x
y
x
m EI , k
M

Fig. 1. An Euler beam with a spring-mass system
The governing equations of the beam and the spring-mass system can be written as:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
0
, , x x t f t x u EI t x u m = ' ' ' ' + o (1)
( ) ( ) ( ) t x ku t kq t q M ,
0
= + (2)
Where ( ) t q and ( ) t x u , are the vertical displacements of the mass and the beam
measured from the static equilibrium position, respectively. ( ) ( )
0
x x t f o is the
contact force between the mass and the beam. Here, is the Kronecker delta function,
which indicates the contact point at position
0
x x = .
( ) ( ) q g M t f + = (3)
Using the modal superposition method, the displacement of the beam can be
represented as:
( ) ( ) ( )

=
n
n n
t q x t x u o , (4)
where ( ) x
n
o is the nth mode shape and ( ) t q
n
is the corresponding modal
coordinate.
Substituting Eq. (4) into Eq. (1), multiplying ( ) x
m
o on both sides and integrating
over the whole beam, obtains:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

= ' ' ' ' +
l
m
l
n
n n m
l
n
n n m
x x x t f x t q EI x t q m
0
0
0 0
d d d o o o o o o (5)
Considering that the stiffness of the spring k is quite large, so that Eq. (7) can be
obtained:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

= ~
n
n n
t q x t x u t q
0 0
, o (6)
Using the orthogonal property of the mode shapes, substituting Eq. (3), (6) into Eq.
(5), Eq. (5) becomes:
( )
( )
( )
0
0
2
0
2
1 x
x q g
M q q x
M
n
n i
i i
n bn n n
o
o
e o
u
+
= +

u
+

=

(7)
where
bn
e

is the nth natural frequency of the beam; and u is an integration
constant:
( )

= u
l
n
x x
0
0
2
d o (8)
Then the natural frequencies of the new system (including the beam and the
spring-mass system) can be approximately written as:
( )
( )
0
2
2
0
2
1 x
M
x
n
bn
n
o
e
e
u
+
= (9)
Eq. (9) can also be written as:
( )
( )
2
0
2
2
0
2
1 1
bn
n
bn n
x
M
x e
o
e e
u
+ = (10)
According to Eq. (10), it is easy to find that the nth frequency shift curve (FSC)
( )
( ) x
x
n
n
2
1
e
= O could represent all dynamic information contained in the mode shape
square, ( ) x
n
2
o . As a result, it is equivalent to the mode shape square, ( ) x
n
2
o , when
used in damage detection methods.
2.2 Two new damage indices
GSM and GFM based on mode shape curvature were developed in Ref. [10, 11]. In
this paper, two damage indices similar to GSM and GFM are proposed for damage
detection.
2.2.1 Local outlier detection operator
Similar to PMSC and MSC, the curvature of the nth frequency shift curve (nth CFSC)
of the damaged beam-like structure at each measurement point
i
x could be
calculated by using central difference:
( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
2
1 1
,
2
i
i
d
n i
d
n i
d
n
i
d
n
d
n i
l
x x x
x
+
O + O O
~

O = k (11)
where
i
l is the distance between two measurement points and d denotes the damaged
state.
Then a cubic polynomial is used to fit to the nth CFSC and a difference function
between the cubic polynomial and the calculated CFSC can be obtained as the
damage index. The cubic polynomial calculated at the ith point is defined as:
( )
3
, 3
2
, 2 , 1 , 0 i n i n i n n i n
x c x c x c c x C
k k k k k
+ + + = (12)
The coefficients
n
c
k , 0
,
n
c
k , 1
,
n
c
k , 2
and
n
c
k , 3
are determined by
d
n i , 2
k ,
d
n i , 1
k ,
d
n i , 1 +
k and
d
n i , 2 +
k . For boundary points, i.e.
1
x and
2
x , the coefficients are
determined by
d
n , 2
k ,
d
n , 3
k ,
d
n , 4
k ,
d
n , 5
k as well as
d
n , 1
k ,
d
n , 3
k ,
d
n , 4
k ,
d
n , 5
k
respectively.
And the difference function is defined as:
( )
( )
( )

+ + +
+ + +
=
2
,
3
, 3
2
, 2 , 1 , 0
2
,
3
, 3
2
, 2 , 1 , 0
max
d
n i i n i n i n n
d
n i i n i n i n n
i n
x c x c x c c
x c x c x c c
x
k
k
o
k k k k
k k k k
(13)
When more than one, i.e. N modes are considered, the advanced damage index
normalized by the maximum value can be written as:

=
=
N
n
n
N
1
1
o o (14)
2.2.2 Global outlier detection operator
The first index could be considered as a local method, another index similar to GFM
is also proposed. A polynomial ( ) x p
n
of degree
n
S is used to fit to the nth CFSC of
the damaged beam-like structure, ( )

O
d
n
:
( )

=
=
n
S
j
j
n j n
x p x p
0
,
(15)
The degree number
n
S and the coefficients can be determined as follows [14].
Firstly,
n
S is assumed to be 3 and a Vandermonde matrix could be constructed based
on the location coordinates | |
T
i
x = x :

1
1
1
1
2 2
1
1 1

n n
n n
n n
S
M
S
M
S S
S S
n
x x
x x
x x
V (16)
Where M denotes the number of measurement point. Then the Vandermonde matrix
n
V could be represents as a product of two matrixes,
n
Q and
n
R :
n n n
R Q V =
(17)
Where
n
R is a M by 1 +
n
S upper triangular matrix and
n
Q is a M by M
unitary matrix.
The condition number of
n
R is calculated and compared to a pre-determined
threshold, o , (according to [14], 10 e 1 = o in this paper). After that, a decision
should be made according to the comparison results:
( )
( )

>
+ = s
stop , cond
1 , cond
o
o
n
n n n
S S
R
R
(18)
After a series of iteration, the degree number
n
S could be determined as:
( ) o s
n n
S R cond st. max
(19)
Then the coefficients could be calculated based on the determined
n
S :
| | ( ) ( ) x Q R x V P
d
n n
d
n n n n S n S n
p p p
n n
O = O = =

+
T 1 1 T
, 1 , , 1
, , , (20)
And the difference function is defined as:
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( )

)

O
=
2
2
max
i
d
n i n
i
d
n i n
i n
x x p
x x p
x o (21)
When more than one, i.e. N modes are considered, the advanced damage index
normalized by the maximum value can also be written as:

=
=
N
n
n
N
1
1
o o (14)

3. Numerical examples
In this section, numerical examples of a simply supported beam are presented to
firstly check the validity of Eq. (10), and then to illustrate the potential of the damage
indices proposed in Section 2. All the beam and spring-mass system interaction
problems are simulated by ABAQUS Linear Perturbation Frequency Package.
3.1 Verification of the equivalence of FSC and mode shape square
A simply-support beam is adopted to verify the equivalence of FSC and mode shape
square. This beam has the cross-sectional area
2
m 5 . 0 = A , the moment of inertia
4
m 014 . 0 = I , the length m 10 = l , the elastic modulus GPa 70 = E , and the density
3
kg/m 2700 = p . The spring-mass system has a mass of kg 500 = M , stiffness
N/m 11 1e k = , and the beam is equally divided into 40 one-dimensional beam
elements. After the natural frequencies of the new system are calculated when the
spring-mass system moves node by node, the FSC could be plotted, which is shown in
Fig. 2.



Fig. 2 The first three FCSs
It observes that the numerical simulation results match Eq. (10) very well which could
validate Eq. (10) and reveal that the FSC represents all dynamic information
contained in the mode shape square.
3.2 Damage detection based on two indices
Both single and multiple damage scenarios are considered to study the efficiency and
reliability of these proposed damage indices. For single damage scenario, element 13
and 14 (3m-3.5m of the beam) are simulated as damaged by reducing 20% height
while for multiple damage scenario, element 13, 14 (3m-3.5m of the beam) and
element 23(5.5m-5.75m of the beam) are simulated as damaged by reducing 20%
height.
Fig. 3 shows that the local outlier detection operator indicates the damage location
accurately by producing a clear peak at the location of element 13 and 14 (3m-3.5m of
the beam), although there is still some lower peaks near the damage. The index using
mode 1 and mode 2 together shows better performance than those using mode 1 or
mode 2 separately.

Fig. 3 The local outlier detection operator with damaged elements 13 and 14 by using
mode1, mode 2 and mode 1 and 2
Fig. 4 gives the detection results of the global outlier detection operator. It could be
found that only one clear peak appears at the damage location. All the global outlier
detection operators no matter using mode1 only, mode 2 only and mode 1 and 2
together show better performance than the local outlier detection operators.

Fig. 4 The global outlier detection operator with damaged elements 13 and 14 by
using mode1, mode 2, and mode 1 and 2
For the multiple damage scenario, the detection result of local outlier detection
operator is shown in Fig. 5. The first damage (element 13 and 14) is indicated by a
clear peak, while the second damage (element 23) is indicated by two peaks near the
damage location. The local outlier detection operator using mode 2 only show the best
performance, both in the location and in the amplitude; that using mode 1 only
produces two peaks on the two sides of the damage which might be a result of small
damage since when the damage is larger, like the first damage, there is one apparent
peak[10]. According to Fig. 5, the combination of mode 1 and mode 2 together should
be more reliable, which not only indicate the damage location but also show the
damage level by the amplitude of the index.

Fig. 5 The local outlier detection operator with damaged elements 13, 14 and 23 by
using mode1, mode 2 and mode 1 and 2
Fig. 6 shows the result of global outlier detection operator for two damages. It
observes that although the index using mode 2 only does not indicate the second
damage, that using mode 1 only shows better performance than the local outlier
detection operator: both two damages are indicated by only one clear peak and the
amplitude at the first damage is as twice high as that at the second damage. Similar to
local outlier detection operator, the global outlier detection operator using the
combination of mode 1 and mode 2 should be more reliable in practice.

Fig. 6 The global outlier detection operator with damaged elements 13, 14 and 23 by
using mode1, mode 2 and mode 1 and 2

4. Experimental verification
With the confidence obtained in numerical simulation, a simple experiment was
carried out to give further verification for these proposed indices.
4.1 The setup of experiment
The photograph of a thin steel beam in dimension of 120mm30mm4.5mm is shown
in Fig 7. The beam was clamped with the span of 100mm and 19 nodes (except 2
clamped points) were signed on the beam with the uniform interval of 50mm. A single
damage of 20mm width produced by reducing the height to 4mm was located at
350mm away from the left side. The additional mass was of 500g and clamped on the
beam which could be seen in Fig 8.

Fig.7 The photograph of the tested beam

Fig.8 The photograph of the additional mass
During the experiment, the additional mass moved node by node from the left side to
the right side. On every node, the free vibration response of the beam was recorded by
an accelerometer fixed on the additional mass then the natural frequencies could be
calculated by FFT.
4.2 Experimental results
The first two natural frequencies of the mass-beam system were measured when the
mass moved on the beam node by node. Then the two damage indices were used to
detect the single damage.

Fig. 7 The local outlier detection operator by using mode1, mode 2 and mode 1 and 2
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the results of these two indices. It could be found that both
methods are able to detect the artificial damage by indicating a clear peak and the
global outlier detection operator shows better performance than the local outlier
detection operator since the amplitude of the local outlier detection operator at the
boundary nodes are quite high in spite of no damage there while the global outlier
detection operator gives only one clear peak. It is because that the cubic polynomial
values at boundary nodes were determined by only one side of the element while
those away from boundary nodes were determined by both sides of the element, the
fitting capacity of extrapolation used for the boundary points was lower than that of
interpolation used for inner points. On the other hand, the indices using mode 1 give
better result than that using mode 2, the reason might be the lower frequency could be
measured more accurately.

Fig. 8 The global outlier detection operator by using mode1, mode 2 and mode 1 and
2
5. Discussion and conclusion
This paper firstly demonstrates the equivalence of the FSC and the mode shape square.
Since all equations are based on linear elastic theory, so the deformation should be
small. That is, the mass M should be chosen to make the new system satisfy the linear
elastic theory. On the other hand, According to Eq. (11), the heavier the mass is, the
more dramatic the frequency shifts. To obtain more accurate FSC, heavier mass
should be chosen. As a result, the mass should be chosen carefully.
This paper also proposes two damage indices which are verified effective and reliable
by both numerical simulation and simple experiment. It is found that for the local
outlier detection operator, the boundary effect would affect the detection accuracy at
boundary nodes while the global outlier detection operator could give satisfied results
at those points and the damage indices based on lower mode gives better detection
results than the higher ones. The combination of more modes could give a relatively
conservative prediction so it should be reliable in practice.
Finally, the two indices are based on the FSC and the frequency measurement is much
easier, more accurate and costless. So these proposed methods would be useful and
reliable in practice.

Acknowledgements
This work is support by National Science Foundation of China with grant number
10802040). This support is gratefully acknowledged.

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