An integrated approach to detection of cracks using vibration characteristics (Q1338589)

A contribution to the nondestructive identification of cracks using vibration characteristics is presented. The approach is based on the perturbation of eigenvalues due to imperfections produced by the cracks. The method assumes that the mode shapes remain unmodified when the cracks are produced; the method can be applied to one-dimensional systems such as bars or beams. Some numerical examples are presented. I would remark that from the numerical examples it comes out the great precision one must have by using this method; for example, one must measure a relative shift in the eigenvalues of about 0.05\%. Therefore the method is high sensitive to errors. This was to be expected since the approach is, in fact, a perturbation method.