Baseline formation for damage diagnosis in one dimensional-beam problems

A brief account of the theories behind modal analysis, dimensional analysis, the stereolithography process and the strain energy damage detection method is presented. An integrated system of those techniques is formulated to diagnose damage in beam-like structures. Damage diagnoses include detecting the defect and then localizing it. In the absence of a baseline for the pre-damaged structures, an attempt is made to create one, analytically, using dimensional analysis and physically using stereolithography. First, a preliminary diagnosis check is performed using shift in natural frequency. In this process, the expected natural frequencies obtained using dimensional analysis are compared to those obtained experimentally. The existence of frequency shift is statistically verified. Secondly, using stereolithography synthesized baselines and strain energy method damage is localized by observing the area of strain energy increase.