Damage Identification and Quantification in Beams Using Wigner-Ville Distribution.

The paper presents the novel method of damage identification and quantification in beams using the Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD). The presented non-parametric method is characterized by high sensitivity to a local stiffness decrease due to the presence of damage, comparable with the sensitivity of the wavelet-based approaches, however the lack of selection of the parameters of the algorithm, like wavelet type and its order, and the possibility of reduction of the boundary effect make this method advantageous with respect to the mentioned wavelet-based approaches. Moreover, the direct relation between the energy density resulting from the application of WVD to modal rotations make it possible to quantify damage in terms of its width and depth. The results obtained for the numerical modal rotations of a beam presented in this paper, simulating the results of non-destructive testing achievable with the shearography non-destructive testing method, confirm high accuracy in localization of a damage as well as quantification of its dimensions. It was shown that the WVD-based method is suitable for detection of damage represented by the stiffness decrease of 1% and can be identified and quantified with a high precision. The presented results of quantification allowed extracting information on damage width and depth.