The application of modal filters for damage detection

A modal filter is a tool used to extract the modal coordinates of each individual mode from a system`s output. This is achieved by mapping the response vector from the physical space to the modal space. It decomposes the system`s responses into modal coordinates, and thus, on the output of the filter, the frequency response with only one peak corresponding to the natural frequency to which the filter was tuned can be obtained. As was shown in the paper (Deraemecker and Preumont 2006), structural modification (e.g. a drop in stiffness or mass due to damage) causes the appearance of spurious peaks on the output of the modal filter. A modal filter is, therefore, a great indicator of damage detection, with such advantages as low computational effort due to data reduction, ease of automation and lack of sensitivity to environmental changes. This paper presents the application of modal filters for the detection of stiffness changes. Two experiments were conducted: the first one using the simulation data obtained from the numerical 7DOF model, and the second one on the experimental data from a laboratory stand in 4 states of damage.