Detecting damage in vibrating structures with a scanning LDV

It has been demonstrated, through experiments on laboratory-scale structures, that structural defects such as cracks can be detected and located using a continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) if vibration sufficient to flex the defect can be induced and if the defects are such as to produce localised mode shape discontinuities. This paper describes such a method of defect detection using a short linear scan at the crack location. Through-cracks are easily detected in thin metal plates whereas narrow slots in a solid cantilever beam have no easily identifiable effect unless they extend more than half-way through the thickness. Cracks in a reinforced-concrete beam introduced marked and identifiable discontinuities in mode shapes. Speckle noise affects the measurements, sometimes seriously. A simple low-pass filter mayimprove the signal quality.