Condition assessment of reinforced concrete beams using dynamic data measured with distributed long-gage macro-strain sensors

A new condition assessment strategy of reinforced concrete (RC) beams is proposed in this paper. This strategy is based on frequency analysis of the dynamic data measured with distributed long-gage macro-stain sensors. After extracting modal macro-strain, the reference-based damage index is theoretically deducted in which the variations of modal flexural rigidity and modal neutral axis height are considered. The reference-free damage index is also presented for comparison. Both finite element simulation and experiment investigations were carried out to verify the proposed method. The manufacturing procedure of long-gage fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor chosen in the experiment is firstly presented, followed by an experimental study on the essential sensing properties of the long-gage macro-strain sensors and the results verify the excellent sensing properties, in particular the measurement accuracy and dynamic measuring capacity. Modal analysis results of a concrete beam show that the damage appearing in the beam can be well identified by the damage index while the vibration testing results of a RC beam show that the proposed method can not only capture small crack initiation but its propagation. It can be concluded that distributed long-gage dynamic macro-strain sensing technique has great potential for the condition assessment of RC structures subjected to dynamic loading.     

Design of shaped piezoelectric modal sensors for cantilever beams with intermediate support by using differential transformation method

In this paper a solution to the problem of finding the shape of piezoelectric modal sensors for a cantilever beam with intermediate support is proposed by using the differential transformation method (DTM). A general expression for designing the shape of a piezoelectric modal sensor is presented, in which the output signal of the designed sensor is proportional to the response of the target mode. Other modes are filtered out. The modal sensor shape is expressed as a linear function of the second spatial derivative of the structural mode shape function. By using boundary condition and continuity condition equations at intermediate support, the closed-form series solution of the second spatial derivative of the mode shapes can be determined based on DTM. Then the shapes of the designed modal sensors are obtained. Finally, numerical examples are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed modal sensors for the cantilever beam with intermediate support.     

Design of shaped piezoelectric modal sensor for beam with arbitrary boundary conditions by using Adomian decomposition method

The theory for designing distributed piezoelectric modal sensors is well established for beam structures. However, the current modal sensor theory is limited in scope in that it can only be applied in the case of classical boundary conditions (i.e., either clamped, free, simply supported or sliding). In this paper a solution to the problem of finding the shape of piezoelectric modal sensors for a beam with arbitrary boundary conditions is proposed, using the Adomian decomposition method (ADM). A general expression for designing the shape of a piezoelectric modal sensor is presented, in which the output signal of the designed sensor is proportional to the response of the target mode. Other modes are filtered out. The modal sensor shape is expressed as a function of the second spatial derivative of the structural mode shape function. Based on the ADM and employing some simple mathematical operations, the closed-form series solution of the second spatial derivative of the mode shapes can be determined. Then the shapes of the designed modal sensors are obtained. Finally, some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed modal sensors. It is shown that, for classical boundary conditions, the shapes of the modal sensors based on the ADM agree well with analytical and numerical results given in the literature. For general boundary conditions it is found that the shape of the modal sensors is influenced by the number of modes of interest because the second spatial derivatives of the mode shapes are not orthogonal to one another. The modal sensors for general boundary conditions can be considered as modal filters within a limited frequency band.     

An inertia-capacitance beam substructure formulation based on the bond graph method with application to rotating beams

In this paper, a novel inertia-capacitance (IC) beam substructure formulation based on the IC-field presentation from the bond graph method is developed. The IC beam provides a modular, systematic and graphical approach to beam modeling. These features allow the modeler to focus more on the modeling and less on the mathematics. As such, the IC beam is proposed as an alternative to the many existing types of beam models available in the literature. The IC beam is formulated in the center of mass body fixed coordinate system allowing for easy interfacing in a multibody system setting. This floating frame approach is also computationally cheap. Elastic deformations in the IC beam are assumed to be small and described by modal superposition. The formulation couples rigid body and elastic deformations in a nonlinear fashion. The formulation is also compact and efficient. Detailed derivations for a two-dimensional planar IC beam with bending modes are presented. A modal acceleration method based on the decoupling of bending modes is proposed for use in the IC beam. The rotating beam spin-up maneuver problem is solved. The Karnopp-Margolis method is applied to ensure complete integral causality for an efficient numerical system. Geometric substructuring technique is applied to model large deflections. The IC beam is shown to be capable of solving the rotating beam problem accurately and efficiently.     

基于稀土掺杂光纤的强度调制型弯曲传感器

研究了一种基于稀土掺杂材料的新型周期性微拉锥玻璃光纤及其弯曲传感应用技术. 该光纤的纤芯和包层分别由两种硅酸铅玻璃材料组成,具有可塑性好和易于形成微拉锥的特点. 该传感器的核心敏感体由聚焦的CO₂激光束对稀土掺杂光纤进行周期性和等间距加热方式制备. 论文以该敏感体为核心,结合精密位置移动平台和光学测量平台,构建了基于强度调制的弯曲传感测量系统. 理论研究和实验结果表明,这种弯曲传感测量系统的传输光强灵敏度达到-28.2 μW/m,测量误差低于±1%,具备实际的工程应用价值. 关键词： 稀土掺杂光纤 微拉锥 弯曲传感 强度调制     

Modal control of beam flexural vibration

An active control system was developed to control the flexural vibrations of a beam with a modal filtering with only one secondary actuator. Segmented piezoelectric actuators and sensors were used for driving and sensing the bending beam vibrations. The primary actuator was fed by a broadband random disturbance signal in order to excite the first five modes of the structure. However, only the second to fifth modes were controlled. The control algorithm was implemented on a DSP board and the input and output signals were filtered using high order low pass filters. These filters, implemented on the DSP board avoid the degrading effect on the control performances of the higher order modes and which are not controlled. The modal filtering was achieved by computing. To this end, it is based on a previous identification procedure. This latter models, in one step, the dynamics of the structure and also the transfer function of the electronic circuits of the controller. The identified filtered modes were then used to compute the gain matrix using a LQR technique (linear quadratic regulator). Simulations of the active control were carried out and practical implementation of the control algorithms was performed. Experimental and simulation results were then compared and discussed.     

Coupled bending and twisting of a timoshenko beam

Allowance is made for shear deflection and for rotary inertia of a non-uniform beam that executes coupled bending and twisting vibration. Principal modes are found, orthogonality conditions established and modal equations of forced motion derived.     

The mass normalization of the displacement and strain mode shapes in a strain experimental modal analysis using the mass-change strategy

The classic experimental modal analysis (EMA) is a well-known procedure for determining the modal parameters. The less frequently used strain EMA is based on a response measurement using strain sensors. The results of a strain EMA are the modal parameters, where in addition to the displacement mode shapes the strain mode shapes are also identified. The strain EMA can be used for an experimental investigation of a stress–strain distribution without the need to build a dynamical model. It can also be used to determine the modal parameters when, during modal testing, a motion sensor cannot be used and so a strain sensor is used instead. The displacement and strain mode shapes that are determined with the strain EMA are not mass normalized (scaled with respect to the orthogonality properties of the mass-normalized modal matrix), and therefore some dynamical properties of the system cannot be obtained. The mass normalization can be made with the classic EMA, which requires the use of a motion sensor. In this research a new approach to the mass normalization in the strain EMA, without using a motion sensor, is presented. It is based on the recently introduced mass-change structural modification method, which is used for the mass normalization in an operational modal analysis. This method was modified in such a way that it can be used for the mass normalization in the strain EMA. The mass-normalized displacement and strain mode shapes were obtained using a combination of the proposed approach and the strain EMA. The proposed approach was validated on real structures (beam and plate).     

ROBUST VIBRATION CONTROL OF A BEAM USING THE H∞-BASED CONTROLLER WITH MODEL ERROR COMPENSATOR

The vibration control of a flexible beam subjected to arbitrary, unmeasurable disturbance forces is investigated in this paper. The beam is analyzed by using modal expansion theorem. The independent modal space control is adopted for the active vibration control. Discrete sensors and actuators are used here. The modal filters are used as the state estimator to obtain the modal co-ordinates and modal velocities for the state feedback control. Because of the existence of the disturbance forces, the vibration control only with the state feedback control law cannot suppress the vibration well. The method of disturbance forces cancellation is then added in the feedback loop. In order to implement the disturbance forces cancellation, the unknown disturbance forces must be observed. The model error compensator is employed to observe the unknown disturbance modal forces for the direct cancellation. After the implementation of the disturbance modal forces cancellation, there are still some residual disturbance modal forces which excite the beam. The disturbance attenuation problem is of concern in the design of the state feedback control law. For ensuring that influence of the residual disturbance modal forces is reduced to an acceptable level, the robust static H_∞ state feedback controller is designed. The vibration control performances of the feedback control with the H_∞ controller and the disturbance forces cancellation are discussed.     

On-line detection of fatigue cracks using an automatic mode tracking technique

Experimental fatigue tests usually require large testing times. In addition to the resulting increased time-to-market, the large fatigue test time also implies that any structural health monitoring technique that is used should be automatic. When using the modal parameters as damage indicators, an important amount of user interaction is still needed to separate physical poles from computational ones. In this paper, an experimental framework will be developed to automatically track the health of the structure on-line with the performance of fatigue tests. The modal parameters are tracked using a combination of the maximum likelihood estimator and an auto-regressive model. Since confidence levels on the modal parameter are available it is possible to detect if damage is present. In addition, the quasi-static stiffness with computed confidence levels is also used as a damage indicator. The proposed techniques are demonstrated on a steel beam with a propagating fatigue crack.     

Coupling to an endfaced multi-clad optical fibre from a misaligned gaussian beam or a separated multi-clad fibre

The excitation of a multi-clad optical fibre by a misaligned gaussian beam is analysed using a least-squares boundary residual modal technique and a Born approximation. The modal technique is used to analyse the axial coupling via a gap between two aligned fibres. Comparison is made with a method based on a gaussian approximation for the fibre fields. Results of the modal technique confirm the accuracy of the Born approximation when corrected for Fresnel reflection. However, the modal technique is more precise than the other methods when serious mismatch exists and is efficient for treating the gap problem, where the Born approximation is not applicable.     

A basic hybrid finite element formulation for mid-frequency analysis of beams connected at an arbitrary angle

When beams are connected at an arbitrary angle and subjected to an external excitation, both longitudinal and bending waves are generated in the system. Since longitudinal wavelengths are considerably longer than bending wavelengths in the mid-frequency region, the number of bending wavelengths in the beams is considerably larger than the number of longitudinal wavelengths. In this paper, plannar beams connected at arbitrary angles are considered. The energy finite element analysis (EFEA) is employed for modelling the bending behavior of the beams and the conventional finite element analysis (FEA) is utilized for modelling the longitudinal vibration in the beams. Thus, a basic hybrid FEA formulation is presented for mid-frequency analysis of systems that contain two types of energy. The bending vibration is associated with the long members in the system and the longitudinal vibration is associated with the short members. The long members are considered to have high modal overlap and to contain several wavelengths within their dimension, and uncertainty effects are present. The short members contain a small number of wavelengths, and exhibit a low modal overlap. Due to the low modal overlap the resonant frequencies are spaced far apart in the frequency domain, therefore the short members exhibit resonant or non-resonant behavior depending on the frequency of the excitation.In this work, the bending and the longitudinal vibration within the same beam member are treated as a long and as a short member, respectively. A hybrid joint formulation is developed between long and short members. Power reflection and transmission coefficients are derived for each joint. The distribution of the energy throughout the system demonstrates a strong dependency on the power transfer coefficients. Several systems are analyzed by the hybrid FEA and by analytical solutions, and good correlation between them is observed.     

Strongly nonlinear beats in the dynamics of an elastic system with a strong local stiffness nonlinearity: Analysis and identification

We consider a linear cantilever beam attached to ground through a strongly nonlinear stiffness at its free boundary, and study its dynamics computationally by the assumed-modes method. The nonlinear stiffness of this system has no linear component, so it is essentially nonlinear and nonlinearizable. We find that the strong nonlinearity mostly affects the lower-frequency bending modes and gives rise to strongly nonlinear beat phenomena. Analysis of these beats proves that they are caused by internal resonance interactions of nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) of the system. These internal resonances are not of the classical type since they occur between bending modes whose linearized natural frequencies are not necessarily related by rational ratios; rather, they are due to the strong energy-dependence of the frequency of oscillation of the corresponding NNMs of the beam (arising from the strong local stiffness nonlinearity) and occur at energy ranges where the frequencies of these NNMs are rationally related. Nonlinear effects start at a different energy level for each mode. Lower modes are influenced at lower energies due to larger modal displacements than higher modes and thus, at certain energy levels, the NNMs become rationally related, which results in internal resonance. The internal resonances of NNMs are studied using a reduced order model of the beam system. Then, a nonlinear system identification method is developed, capable of identifying this type of strongly nonlinear modal interactions. It is based on an adaptive step-by-step application of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to the measured time series, which makes it valid for multi-frequency beating signals. Our work extends an earlier nonlinear system identification approach developed for nearly mono-frequency (monochromatic) signals. The extended system identification method is applied to the identification of the strongly nonlinear dynamics of the considered cantilever beam with the local strong nonlinear stiffness at its free end.     

APPLICATION OF NON-SMOOTH MODELLING TECHNIQUES TO THE DYNAMICS OF A FLEXIBLE IMPACTING BEAM

Non-smooth modelling techniques have been successfully applied to lumped mass-type structures for modelling phenomena such as vibro-impact and friction oscillators. In this paper, the application of these techniques to continuous elements using the example of a cantilever beam is considered. Employing a Galerkin reduction to form an N -degree-of-freedom modal model, a technique for modelling impact phenomena using a non-smooth dynamics approach is demonstrated. Numerical simulations computed using the non-smooth model are compared with experimentally recorded data for a flexible beam constrained to impact on one side. A method for dealing with sticking motions when numerically simulating the beam motion is presented. In addition, choosing the dimension of the model based on power spectra of experimentally recorded time series is discussed.     

Single-beam analysis of damaged beams: Comparison using Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theory

A new general formulation that is applicable to the damaged, linear elastic structures ‘unified framework’ is used to obtain analytical expressions for natural frequencies and mode shapes. The term mode shapes is used to mean the displacement modes, the section rotation modes, the sectional bending strain modes and sectional shear strain modes. The formulation is applicable to damaged elastic self-adjoint systems. The formulation has two unique aspects: First, the theory is mathematically rigorous since no assumptions are made regarding the physical behavior at a damage location, therefore there is no need to substitute the damage with a hypothetical elastic element such as a spring. Since the beam is not divided at the damage location, rather than an 8 by 8, only a 4 by 4 matrix is solved to obtain the natural frequencies and mode shapes. Second, the inertia effects due to damage which have till now been neglected by researchers are accounted for. The formulation uses a geometric damage model, perturbation of mode shapes and natural frequencies, and a modal superposition technique to obtain and solve the governing differential equation. Timoshenko beam theory is then taken as an example, and its results are compared with results using Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and finite element models. The range of applicability of the two theories is ascertained for damage characteristics such as depth and extent of damage and beam characteristics such as slenderness ratio and Poisson?s ratio. The paper considers rectangular notch like non-propagating damage as an example of the damage.     

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTION BASED ON A MICRO-GENETIC ALGORITHM USING INCOMPLETE AND NOISY MODAL TEST DATA

This paper describes a procedure for detecting structural damage based on a micro-genetic algorithm using incomplete and noisy modal test data. As the number of sensors used to measure modal data is normally small when compared with the degrees of freedom of the finite element model of the structure, the incomplete mode shape data are first expanded to match with all degrees of freedom of the finite element model under consideration. The elemental energy quotient difference is then employed to locate the damage domain approximately. Finally, a micro-genetic algorithm is used to quantify the damage extent by minimizing the errors between the measured data and numerical results. The process may be either of single-level or implemented through two-level search strategies. The study has covered the use of frequencies only and the combined use of both frequencies and mode shapes. The proposed method is applied to a single-span simply supported beam and a three-span continuous beam with multiple damage locations. In the study, the modal test data are simulated numerically using the finite element method. The measurement errors of modal data are simulated by superimposing random noise with appropriate magnitudes. The effectiveness of using frequencies and both frequencies and mode shapes as the data for quantification of damage extent are examined. The effects of incomplete and noisy modal test data on the accuracy of damage detection are also discussed.     

Modal characteristics of a flexible beam with multiple distributed actuators

A flexible structure with surface-bonded piezoceramic patches is modelled using Timoshenko beam theory. Exact mode shapes and natural frequencies associated with the flexural motion are computed for various piezoceramic distributed actuator arrangements. The effects of patch placement and of shear on the modal characteristics are demonstrated using a cantilevered beam as an example. Perfect bonding of the piezoceramic to the beam substructure is assumed, and for the purposes of this paper only passive piezoceramic properties are considered. The modelling technique and results obtained in a closed form are intended to assist investigations into the modelling and control of active structures with surface-bonded piezoceramic actuators.     

Allowance for shear distortion and rotatory inertia of ship hulls

The response of a ship to waves and to propeller excitation (as well as its distortion in still water) may be analysed in modal form by using a linear theory. For symmetric responses the approach has been discussed in terms of a “hull girder” treated as a simple beam. The same is true of uncoupled bending in antisymmetric motion. Simple beam theory has also been adapted for use in “coupled bending and twisting” responses of hulls with large deck openings. The theory has not, hitherto, embodied an allowance for the effects of shear distortion or rotatory inertia. It is shown in this paper how those effects may be allowed for in the analysis of symmetric response, that they do not alter the form of the more rudimentary analysis and that the response lends itself to a convenient matrix formulation.     

Dynamic analysis and temperature measurements of concrete cantilever beam using fibre Bragg gratings

We analyzed the action of fire, causing degradation in a concrete cantilever beam using dynamic testing. The structure was fitted with two fibre Bragg gratings (FBG) sensors. One of them measured vibration and the other measured the temperature inside of the cantilever beam, while the beam was exposed to fire. A high-temperature probe based on a simple packaging system, which isolates the sensing FBG from any mechanical action, was developed. A low-cost fibre Bragg grating interrogation system, including easy assembly and maintenance, was used for the measurements. The temperature in the cantilever beam increased until 150 °C and a reduction in the strength of concrete was observed through modal analysis. Results reveal a considerable reduction in strength occurs even with exposures to moderate temperatures (less than 90 °C).     

Green׳s function method for piezoelectric energy harvesting beams

The development of validated mathematical models for piezoelectric harvesters is important as it provides predictive capabilities of their performance and insight to their coupled electromechanical behavior. Advanced solutions to these models allows for more realistic parameters to be considered. In this paper, we present a Fourier Transform–Green?s Function (FTGF) solution approach to the distributed parameter coupled electromechanical equations for a piezoelectric beam excited by an arbitrary external transverse force. This method, as opposed to modal analysis, allows for frequency-dependent material properties and damping coefficients to be considered. The special case of a harmonic base excitation is considered and closed-form expressions for the frequency response functions of the voltage generated by piezoelectric layer, relative tip displacement and local bending strain are obtained. Finally, the FTGF solution to these frequency response functions is compared with the modal analysis solution along with experimental data for validation.