Damage Evaluation of Free-Free Beam Based on Vibration Testing

Damage can be detected by vibration responses of a structure. Damage changes the modal properties such as natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios. Natural frequency is one of the most frequently used damage indicators. In this paper, the natural frequency is used to monitor damage in a free-free beam. The modal properties of the intact free-free beam are identified based on a setup of 15 accelerometers. A finite element model is used to model the free-free beam. Three models are considered: beam (1D), shell (2D), and solid (3D). The numerical models are updated based on the first five bending natural frequencies. The free-free beam is damaged by a rectangle cut. The experiment is re-setup and the model properties of the damaged beam are re-identified. The cuttings are modeled in the numerical simulations. The first five numerical bending natural frequencies of the damaged beam are compared with the experimental ones. The results showed that the 1D beam element model has the highest errors, while the 2D and 3D models have approximately the same results. Therefore, the 2D representation can be used to model the damaged beam for fast computation.