ABSTRACT
Engineering structure damage will cause the change of material properties,
geometric conditions. The change coupled with the emergence and development of
cracks will have a badly effect on the structure vibration features. So the vibration of
actual structure will show certain nonlinear features. Using elastic assumption to
describe the vibration features of the structure before and after damage is likely to omit
the nonlinear damage information, and this will influence the effect of the structural
damage identification. Therefore, using the nonlinear vibration characteristics for
damage identification is particularly important.
Reinforced concrete U-shaped beams with its economic structure, beautiful
appearance, convenient construction and environmental harmony gradually become the
preferred laying form of highway, railway Bridges and city fast rail. While the U-shaped
beam is widely used, to prolong its service life and avoid catastrophic accident, the
damage detection of the U-shaped beam is becoming a hot research field.
In this paper, the research work includes: firstly, analysis the influence of materials
and cracks on the structure nonlinear vibration characteristics based on the classical
nonlinear vibration theory; Secondly, compare the advantages and disadvantages of
three kinds of non-stationary signal processing namely the STFT, wavelet transform and
Hilbert Huang transform,and finally choose to use the Hilbert Huang transform time-
frequency analysis method to deal with test data in this paper; Thirdly, model test on a
simply supported reinforced concrete U-shaped beam with a scale ratio of 1:10. The
static loads on the beam cause different degree of damage. And at all levels of damage
load condition, conduct dynamic test on the U-shaped beam and collect the
acceleration- time signal; Finally, use the filter and the EMD to decompose out the first
and the third order frequency signal of each state. Then use the Hilbert transform to
identify the first and the third order amplitude-time curve and frequency - time curve of
each state, and finally get a frequency-amplitude chart and normalized frequency-
amplitude comparison chart.
Analysis based on frequency-amplitude chart and normalized frequency-amplitude
comparison chart and get the following conclusion: under the condition of the same
level damage load and the same time of the dynamic test, the instantaneous frequency is
increased with the decrease of the amplitude. While amplitude is relatively small, the
frequency changes fast and while the amplitude is relatively large, the frequency
changes slowly; The vibration of the reinforced concrete U-shaped beam shows obvious
nonlinear features. The nonlinear degree shows a trend of increase and then decrease
with the increase of damage degree; For general structure, the nonlinear vibration
characteristics can be as a method of early warning structural damage. For the structure
with higher requirements for the integrity, because it is sensitive to damage and the
nonlinear degree is increased monotonously with the damage degree within the small
scope of the damage degree, so the nonlinear vibration characteristics can be used for
damage detection.