Damage detection of an aeroelastic panel using limit cycle oscillation analysis

Most of real systems are non-linear and they require damage detection. For such non-linear systems, non-linear damage detection methods are necessary for more accurate results. In this paper, a novel non-linear method is introduced using limit cycle oscillations that arise once the bifurcation (flutter) boundary is exceeded and shows greater sensitivity for damage detection versus linear damage detection techniques. Another advantage of this method is that it can be used for health monitoring of linear or non-linear systems. Here a non-linear aeroelastic panel is considered as a model to show the capabilities of the proposed damage detection technique. Also Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) is used to find the number of independent damage locations in the panel. Rayleigh-Ritz method is used to discretizing spatial domain of the system. Damage is modeled as stiffness reduction in the certain region. By comparing Limit Cycle Oscillation of healthy and damaged panel damage level and its location could be obtained with good sensitivity.