Improving the Structural Health Monitoring System in Detection of Tiny Crack Locations using Wavelet Transform and Digital Filter

Abstract

Structural health monitoring systems, by evaluating several parameters of structural health, attempt to detect the faults in early stages, and prevent their expansion. One of the most important components of a building is its beams in which any crack or damage can result in irreparable financial and psychological damage. Using motion sensors and analyzing their data is one of the methods for monitoring the structural health and detecting its cracks and damages. Meanwhile, wavelet transformation is one of the most commonly used diagnostic tools. In current research, a method based on combination of a discrete wavelet transform and a digital filter is proposed to detect the reinforced concrete beam defects. Various fault modes have been simulated using Abaqus software and Mode shapes have been analyzed using Matlab software under discrete wavelet transform and digital filter. The results indicate a very accurate performance of the proposed method in the detection of millimeter cracks, which shows about 10-times improvement in the resolution, compared with the previous works.

Keywords

• structural health monitoring
• wavelet transform
• digital filter
• crack detection