Damage detection of plate-like structures based on residual force vector

Structural health monitoring is essential to maintain the structural integrity by predicting problems in an early time. This consequently could be reflected on extending the life time of structures. Nondestructive tests based on dynamic measures are usually fast and economic in detecting damages of structures. Various numerical techniques together with recording time histories are used for this purpose. This paper presents a numerical method for damage detection in plate-like structures. The modeling of damage was conducted commercially using the module of MatLab. Comparison of different mode shapes was used in the analysis to detect the location of local damage based on residual force vector. The technique utilized the node residual force vector to locate and evaluate the degree of the suspected damaged elements. In the current study, three configurations for plates were used. The study also concentrated on the efficiency of the new method in identifying damages of different degradation levels. The plates were subjected to different combinations of artificial damages applied at various positions on each plate. The study was not only able to identify the location but also the degree of damage in plates. It has been noted that identification of severe degradation was more precisely identified. As a result, the residual force method is the simplest damage quantification technique which approved to be accurate enough to be used in practical applications.