Ricerc@Sapienza

The paper deals with structural damage identification in steel trusses. Classical procedure based on dynamic measurements able to detect flexibility changes are complemented with data predicting cracks and their evaluating by image processing. The procedure proposes first a damage index, the Stiffness Reduction Factor (SRF), evaluated on the basis of the error between the predictive truss model and the experimental modal model. Then, a nonlinear FEM model is used to determine fatigue cracks in the truss nodes which are compared with the observed ones determined by image processing.

Use of environmental loads to perform continuous Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)
allows controlling the structural integrity in operative conditions, with considerable
timesaving and safety benefits. Aim of this paper is the identification of the damage on a plate
excited by potential vortices using the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). The numerical
model of the load is based on the relationship between the induced vortex pressure and a
rigid wall. The numerical model of the damaged plate is determined by a Finite Element (FE)