Diagnostic benchmarks on dynamic characteristics of thin-walled marine damaged structures

Abstract

Among structural health monitoring (SHM) methods of thin-walled structures, a vibrodiagnostic method is one of the most promising. The accelerometer recorded responses provide diagnostic information that requires mathematical processing to extract the essential dynamic characteristics. The authors have been looking for new parameters - diagnostic benchmarks which can be applied to non-destructive, automatic testing of thin-walled marine structures (especially their welded joints) like ship hulls. All characteristics have been based on recorded data generated during the vibration tests of welded joints with and without failures. For this purpose, the authors proposed method based on: FFT windowing analysis, benchmark with using 2D or 3D time – frequency dynamic characteristics and the determination of damping decrement in function of time. The work presents the algorithm and exemplary results obtained from the application of proposed method to several selected sample plates with different type of welds.