Fault Diagnosis of Beam-Like Structure Using Modified Fuzzy Technique

This paper presents a novel hybrid fuzzy logic based artificial intelligence (AI) technique applicable to diagnosis of the crack parameters in a fixed-fixed beam by using the vibration signatures as input. The presence of damage in engineering structures leads to changes in vibration signatures like natural frequency and mode shapes. In the first part of this work, a structure with a failure crack has been analyzed using finite element method (FEM) and retrospective changes in the vibration signatures have been recorded. In the second part of the research work, these deviations in the vibration signatures for the first three mode shapes have been taken as input parameters for a fuzzy logic based controller for calculation of crack location and its severity as output parameters. In the proposed fuzzy controller, hybrid membership functions have been taken. Several fuzzy rules have been identified for prediction of crack depth and location and the results have been compared with finite element analysis. A database of experimental results has also been considered to check the robustness of the fuzzy controller. The results show that predictions for the nondimensional crack location, α, deviate ~2.4% from experimental values and for the nondimensional crack depth, δ, are less than ~−2%