Wavelet Analysis of Acceleration Response of Beam Under the Moving Mass for Damage Assessment

In the present study, acceleration response of cracked beam is analyzed by using the wavelet transform to detect the crack presence, its location and also to predict the crack severity. The equation of motion of beam under the moving mass is solved by using the fourth order Runge–Kutta method. A code is written by expanding the equation for first three vibration modes. Acceleration signal of the damaged beam under the moving mass contains the discontinuity at the crack location. This discontinuity contained in the acceleration signal is sufficiently visible but it is very small for some signals. Therefore, the acceleration signals are transformed using the wavelet analysis. A wavelet coefficient peak occurs at the location of discontinuity, so that we can identify the crack presence and its location. From the value of wavelet coefficient peak, we can also predict the crack effect with respect to the change in velocity of moving mass and change in crack depth. The main advantage of this method is that the wavelet coefficient peak is sufficiently higher even for the higher velocities and small size crack.