Experimental Study of Damage Detection in Beam Using Dynamic Excitation System and Wavelet Packet Transform and Energy Rate Index

Most of structural failures are because of break in consisting materials. Beginning of these breaks is with crack, whose extension is a serious threat to behavior of structure; so, the methods of distinguishing and showing cracks are the most important subjects, which are being investigated. In this article, by experimental, a new smart portable mechanical system to detect damage in beam structures by wavelet packet energy rate index is introduced. At first, acceleration-time history is taken from the points of the simple support beam, using the accelerometer sensors, and then these signals are decomposed into packet wavelet components and the energy rate index is calculated for each, which is named by Wavelet Packet Energy Rate Index (WPERI). The results indicate that these values are a sensitive and accurate index for the identification of the cracks.