The Approximate Location of Damage through the Analysis of Natural Frequencies with Artificial Neural Networks

An effective and reliable damage assessment methodology is a valuable tool for the timely determination of damage and the deterioration stage of structural members as well as for non-destructive testing (NDT). In this work artificial neural networks are used to identify the approximate location of damage through the analysis of changes in the natural frequencies. At first, a methodology for the use of artificial neural networks for this purpose is described. Different ways of pre-processing the data are discussed. The proposed approach is illustrated through the simulation of a free-free beam with a crack whose natural frequencies were obtained experimentally.