Damage detection in composite cylindrical panels based on forced vibration

The current work is devoted to the problem of the damage detecting inside the composite cylindrical panels. The applied method is based on the analysis of the forced vibration and corresponding mode shapes of the structure. The presented study has theoretical character (numerical experiment) but it can be easily adopted in practice, for example in case of the SLDV technique. The analysis is performed with use of finite element method. The internal defect is modeled by the reduction of the composite material stiffness and density in arbitrary chosen elements. In the first step the natural frequencies of the intact structure are computed with use of the modal analysis. Next, the corresponding mode shapes are determined (harmonic analysis) for the damage and intact structure. For the each mode shape the curvature in the longitudinal and circumferential direction are determined. Generally, the change of the curvature are very similar in case of damage and intact structure. However, in the location of the damage the change of mode shape curvature are quite different in comparison with intact ones. This fact can be further used in order to detect any kind of flaws inside the analyzed structure. The appropriate damage index is also introduced. Moreover, the simplified analysis of the measurement error influence on the accuracy of the proposed approach is also investigated. The discussed method of the damage detecting in the investigated here multilayered cylindrical panel are very sensitive. Even single small flaws with relatively low reduction of the material stiffness as well as its position can be effectively detected and localized.