Damage severity for cracked simply supported beams

Abstract

This paper investigated the static and dynamic behaviors of isotropic cracked simply supported beam using finite element analysis (FEA), ANSYS software. Modal and harmonic vibration analysis of intact and damaged beam were performed in order to extract mode shapes of bending vibration, natural frequencies and obtain frequency response diagram. Static finite element analysis of undamaged and damaged simply supported beam was carried out to determine static deflection, then stiffness of intact and cracked beam was computed using conventional formula. Crack damage severity of damaged beam was calculated and it is noticed that as crack position is increased from left hand support of beam up to central point and crack depth is increased, then crack damage severity increases. The effect of mode shape pattern is investigated and it is found that the amount of decreasing of natural frequency is proportional to the normalized mode shape at position of crack. The exhibited correlation between results for damaged beam revealed that crack damage severity is proportional to static deflection and inversely proportional to first mode frequency.

Keywords

• isotropic
• damaged simply supported beam
• crack damage severity
• mode shape
• static deflection