Wing units may be damaged by fatigue, corrosion, or extraordinary events, for instance earthquakes or crushes. They are constantly monitored to guarantee their reliability and, if necessary, to initiate repair measures well timed. If damage has occured it has to be diagnosted and localised reliably. There are worldwide attempts to use new health-monitoring-methods to overcome elaborate inspections at regular intervals. Aim of the project is a self-controlling, stand-alone system. As pool recorded vibration signals of the structure are used. From the changes in the vibration-behaviour that are due to damages in the structure a numerical, FEM-based calculation tool solves the inverse problem to generate information on the location and the extent of the damage. This calculation tool is being tested in international cooperations with data taken from a highway-bridge in New Mexico /USA, a NASA teststructure and a structure tested in the european research laboratory ELSA-JRC in Ispra, Italy. Localisation of damage by means of a FEM-model |
