On a bifurcation theory-based prognosis methodology for characterizing multiple damage mechanisms

Prognosis integrates physics based models of damage, noninvasive real time interrogation techniques and data/signature analysis to predict future performance. One of the significant capabilities essential for the prognosis methodology to work is to develop analysis methods for multiple and interacting damage and failure mechanisms. In this paper the proposed methodology has been demonstrated with the help of a nonlinear multi-degree-of-freedom system which exhibits multiple phenomenological damage phenomenon. It is shown that the participation factors for the bifurcating damage modes can be used to characterize the damage mechanism.