Numerical Applications of Discrete Wavelet Transform in Structural Health Monitoring

The main advantage gained by using wavelets is the ability to perform local analysis of a signal which is capable of revealing some hidden aspects of the data that other signal analysis techniques fail to detect. This property is particularly important for damage detection applications. This paper presents a review of numerical applications of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for damage detection in a beam with two fixed ends subjected to static and dynamic analyses. The modeling of damage is done in finite elements using ABAQUS 6.13 program. The technical computing software MATLAB R2011a is employed for the data processing and wavelet transform. The static and dynamic responses (in displacement) of the structure with simulated damage is used in analyses to detect the location of damage using the wavelet transform. Special attention is given to the performance of the method when the crack is close to a support. The results of analyses are presented and discussed in this paper

Keywords:

Finite elements method , Discrete wavelet transform , SHM , Signal processing