Monitoring Technical Conditions of Engineering Structures Using the Non-Linear Approach

Conventional methods of monitoring technical condition are based on detection of damage in the structures of buildings or facilities during the entire period of their operation. In spite of considerable interest displayed to this issue and a significant number of publications, there is no unity of opinions. These methods differ from each other in the sets of values fixed for investigations, the techniques of their recording, transfer and further processing. Today's rules and regulations for structural designs expand the scope of application of the structures operating in the elastic-plastic stage. These damage-free structures originally display the nonlinear properties and can be adequately described only by the non-linear models. This paper presents a method for determining the type and level of non-linearity from the structural oscillations data for monitoring the change in the health of structures. It is shown that a plot of acceleration against the magnitude of the displacement represents the restoring force of a structure. If the structure is damaged during a new striking motion, the phase trajectories in plane "acceleration-displacement" will deviate from its healthy signature.