| This dissertation presents recent development and current capabilities of a dynamics-based and model-independent Boundary Effect Evaluation Method (BEEM) for damage inspection of structures. Damage introduces new boundaries to a structure, and influences of boundaries on steady-state high-frequency dynamic response are localized effects. The BEEM is a signal processing method that takes advantage of these localized effects to perform area-by-area extraction of damage-induced boundary effects from steady-state Operational Deflection Shapes (ODSs) to reveal damage locations. Steady-state ODSs of a structure can be measured using any full-field measurement tool, and the BEEM decomposes an ODS into central and boundary solutions using a sliding-window least-squares data-fitting technique. Numerical and experimental results show that boundary solutions are excellent damage indicators. Experimental results of many one- and two-dimensional structures validate the high sensitivity and accuracy of BEEM for detection and estimation of multiple small defects in structures. |
