Damage Identification by the Dynamic Virtual Distortion Method

This paper presents a novel approach to damage identification based on the phenomenon of elastic waves propagation. The theoretical background is the dynamic Virtual Distortion Method, which is capable of modelling both a reference excitation signal propagated in the structure over a time domain and a perturbed signal due to damaged locations. The related methodology is presented including a brief description of experimental verification. Numerical example with successful, multi-damage case identification is demonstrated. Advantages of the approach as well as its challenging points are discussed.