Technical Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Available online at www.tjeas.com

2013 TJEAS Journal-2013-3-23/3484-3490
ISSN 2051-0853 2013 TJEAS

MULTY-CRACK DETECTION
Mehdi karimi1, Nima Haghshenas2, Behzad Masoumijalal3
1. Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
2. M.Sc Student of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University, Tehran, Iran
3. M.S Student of Civil Engineering, Islamic azad University, Hamedan, Iran
Corresponding author: Mehdi karimi
ABSTRACT: Crack is a type of damage that can lead to catastrophic failure when grows in a
structure. Therefore prediction of cracks is a very important problem. In this research, two methods
for crack detection in structures have been presented and compared. Some of the parameters
used for crack detection are mode shapes and natural frequencies. The structure used in this
research is a cantilever beam. The process of crack detection has been performed by using finite
element method and artificial neural network. In the method which was based on wavelet analysis
and finite element method, first some transverse cracks were assumed. Using finite element
method for identifies natural frequencies and first mode shapes. Then sym 4 wavelet transform
was used to analyze the mode shapes of the structure. Then a new technique based on local
maxima line of wavelet coefficient through different scales was applied. Subsequently, cracks
characteristics were computed with a good approximation. This technique was employed to
different numbers, locations of cracks and results were acquired. This technique has several
advantages to other common wavelet methods. Another method used in this research was based
on artificial neural network. Crack identification in the proposed method is consists of two steps. In
step 1, a radial basis neural network was used to detect the number of cracks of structure. In step
2, a back error propagation neural network was trained to detect the locations of cracks. Training
neural networks using obtained data from finite element method has been performed. Finally
obtained results from two methods were compared with each other.
Key words: multi-crack detection; finite element method; neural network; wavelet analysis
INTRODUCTION
One of the major types of faults that if develops, may cause catastrophic damages in structures are
crack. Recently some studies have been done on non-destructive crack identification methods. In last 5
decades researchers have shown great interest in vibration analysis method and so there are a lot of
investigations in this area. Dimarogonas reviewed methods of investigating cracked structures in 1996
(Adams and Cawley, 1979). Crack causes a local flexibility in the structure which affects the dynamic
behavior. For example it reduces the natural frequencies and changes the mode shapes. Analyzing
these effects can be used for crack detection (Binici, 2005). Dimarogonas et al modeled a crack using
local flexibility and calculated the equivalent stiffness utilizing fracture mechanic (Cam et al, 2008; Chang
et al, 2008). Adams et al developed an experimental technique to estimate the location and the depth of
a crack based on the changes of the natural frequencies (Chang and Chen, 2005). In another
investigation Dimarogonas presented methods which relate the depth of the crack to the changes of the
natural frequencies when the crack location is known (Chondros and Dimarogonas, 1980). These
methods can be used to identify cracks in different structures. Gudmunson presented a method to
predict the changes of the natural frequencies caused by faults such as cracks, notches, etc
(Dimarogonas, 1976). Shen et al Presented a method based on minimizing the difference between the
measured data the data obtained from an analytical data to identify cracks in an Euler-Bernoulli beam
(Dimarogonas, 1996). Masoud et al Investigated vibrational characteristics of a fixed-fixed beam with a
symmetric crack considering coupling effect of crack depth and axial load (Douka et al, 2003).
In recent years some studies have been done on multi-crack detection of structures. Sekhar (1982)
summarized different studies on double/multi-cracks and the respective influences, identification
methods in vibration structures as beams, rotors, pipes etc. Lee et al (2001) used finite element method
to solve forward problem in a multiple cracked beam. The inverse problem was solved iteratively for the
locations and sizes of the cracks using the Newton-Raphson method. Mazanoglu et al (2009) performed

Tech J Engin & App Sci., 3 (23): 3484-3490, 2013

a vibration analysis of multiple cracked non-uniform beams by the Rayleigh-Ritz approximation method.
Patil and Maiti (2004) detected multiple cracks by frequency measurements. Their procedure gave a
linear relationship explicitly between the changes in natural frequencies of the beam and the damage
parameters. Binici et al (1998) proposed a parametric study in order to investigate the effect of cracks
and axial force levels on the Eigen frequencies. A new method for natural frequency analysis of beam
with an arbitrary number of cracks has been developed by Khiem and Lien (2009) on the bases of the
transfer matrix. Ertugrul et al (1986) analyzed the vibrations of cracked beam as a result of impact
shocks to obtain information about the location and depth of cracks in cracked beams.
Also there are some studies have been done on crack identification in structures based on wavelet
transform method. Loutridis et al (2003) presented a method for crack identification in double-cracked
beams based on wavelet analysis. The location of the cracks was determined by the sudden changes in
the spatial variation of the transformed response. To estimate the relative depth of the cracks, an
intensity factor was established which correlated the size of the cracks to the coefficients of the wavelet
transform. Wavelet transform was used to analyze the fractional strain energy of each beam section by
Chang et al (2006). This method just requires the displacements of beam after damage. It was observed
that distributions of the wavelet coefficients can identify the damage position by showing a peak at the
position of the damage. Hang and Chen (2008) calculated the mode shapes of free vibration and natural
frequencies of the multiple cracked beams. The mode shapes were analyzed by wavelet transformation
to get the positions of the cracks. Then natural frequencies were used to predict the depth of the cracks
through the characteristic equation. Rucka and Wilde (1991) showed that continuous wavelet transform
are more suitable for damage detection in beams and plates than discrete wavelet transform. Because
continuous wavelet transforms provide precise resolution necessary for damage localization. Zamanian
and Ohadi (2009) proposed a method was based on local maxima lines of wavelet coefficients. They
showed that modified technique has ability of crack identification more obvious and clear than the
conventional methods in price of more computational effort.
In this research, two methods for crack detection in beams based on natural frequencies and mode
shapes by using wavelet analysis and two types of artificial neural network is presented and compared.
Modal Analysis
The beam investigated in this paper is a cantilever beam with one or more open crack. Table 1 gives the
beam's characteristics. In this section three natural frequencies of the structure are calculated for
different conditions of crack locations and depths using finite element method. Table 2 compares
between the some results obtained by finite element method in this study and the results obtained in
reference (Loutridis et al, 2004).
Wavelet Transform Analysis
One of the methods that in this study are used for crack identification is wavelet transform. Wavelet
transform is a new mathematical technique developed recently which consists in decomposing a signal into
elementary contributions called wavelets. By convoluting the signal with the wavelets, this decomposition
comprises an expansion of the signal over the wavelets. In the one dimensional case, it provides a two
dimensional unfolding of the signal resolving both in the position and scale as independent variables.
Wavelets are constructed from an analyzing function called mother wavelet by means of translations and
dilatations. Therefore, wavelet analysis acts as a mathematical micros cope which allows one to zoom in on
the fine structure of a signal or alternatively, to reveal large scale structures by zooming out.
Table1. Cantilever Beam Characteristics
Density
(Kg/m3)

Poisson
Ratio

7860
Length
(mm)
240

0.3
Thickness
(mm)
12

Elasticity
Modulus
(GPa)
210
Height
(mm)
20

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Table 2 .Comparison of Natural Frequencies between Present Study and (Loutridis et al, 2004)
Crack Location (mm)

Crack Depth (mm)

No
1

No
2

No
1

No
2

24

96

24

96

24

120

10

36

108

48

120

10

48

120

10

10

60

132

11

60

132

11

| ( )|
| |

| |

Where

()

Error
(%)
0.50
0.51
0.50
0.71
0.51
0.44
0.28
1.93
1.28
1.00
1.10
0.71
0.57
0.67
0.39
1.14
0.73
0.69
0.39
0.73
0.66
0.41
0.80
0.51

is the translation (factor a) and dilation (factor b) ( ):

(2)

with
(

The wavelet transform

(

Ref[13]
(HZ)
271.931
1649.858
4545.492
248.039
1654.086
4611.596
265.013
1625.863
4660.053
229.482
1405.505
4445.952
259.042
1536.825
4558.17
222.321
1527.623
4197.771
272.689
1624.409
4463.05
271.594
1476.876
4435.421

(1)

Relative to every basic wavelet

( )

Present
(HZ)
273.30
1658.3
4568.3
249.82
1662.6
4631.9
264.26
1657.4
4600.0
231.78
1421.1
4477.9
260.54
1547.2
4576.3
224.87
1538.9
4226.9
273.76
1636.3
4492.9
272.71
1488.8
4458.4

( ) is a basic wavelet if and if its Fourier transform ( ) satisfies:

A function

Natural Frequencies

( )

( )

) of function

( ) with respect to

is defined as their scalar product by:

(3)

Among available wavelets, Sym 4 has been chosen in this research. By replacing with a spatial coordinate
in previous equations, spatially distributed functions can be analyzed by wavelet transform. Considering the
spatial functions S distributed over ( ) the wavelet coefficients for the functions then can be written as:
(

( )

( )

(4)

Where is a spatial coordinate,

is the scale (dilation) factor and is the position (translation)
factor. The spatial functions used here are mode shapes of cracked beam and wavelet coefficients are
written as:
(

( )

( )

(5)

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Since the resulting coefficients from the wavelet transform of a spatial domain function can be
represented in a two dimensional positions scale map. Examination of the modulus of the wavelet transform
shows that many of these coefficients are very small in magnitude. Large magnitude components, termed
modulus maxima, will be present at positions where the maximum change in the mode shape has occurred.
Singularities (cracks) in the mode shape can therefore be identified by the presence of modulus maxima at
specific positions in the wavelet map.
Artificial Neural Network
In this section the process of crack detection has been performed by using finite element method
and combination of two types of artificial neural network including radial basis neural network and back error
propagation neural network. Crack identification in the proposed method is consists of two steps. In step 1, a
radial basis neural network was used to detect the number of cracks of structure. In step 2, a feed forward
back error propagation neural network was trained to detect the locations of cracks. Training neural networks
using obtained data from finite element method has been performed.
Back error propagation neural network
A schematic diagram of typical multilayer feed-forward neural-network architecture is shown in Fig 1.
The network usually consists of an input layer, some hidden layers and an output layer. The back e rror
propagation is the most widely used learning algorithm.

Figure1. Multilayer feed forward neural network

In this paper two back error propagation neural networks are employed for prediction of locations of
cracks, one of them for beam with two cracks and another for beam with one crack. These networks consist
of one input layer with 3 neurons, one hidden layer with 30 neurons and one output layer with two neurons
for beam with two cracks and one neuron for beam with one crack. The inputs of back error propagation
neural networks were first three natural frequencies of different conditions of cracks and output were
locations of cracks.
Radial basis neural network
The structure of Radial basis neural network is shown in Fig. 2. It includes four layers, the input
layer, hidden layer, summation layer and output layer. In this study a radial basis neural network was used to
detect the number of cracks in structure. The inputs of this neural network were f irst three natural
frequencies of different conditions of cracks and outputs were number of cracks.

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Figure2. Radial Basis Neural Network

RESULTS
In this section number and locations of cracks for some special cases are obtained by wavelet
transform method (Figs 3-8) and then are compared with results of artificial neural network method (Table 3).
The wavelet analysis is conducted on beam fundamental mode shape (Figs 3, 6) assumed as a
spatially distributed signal by the sym 4 wavelet. For a special case the wavelet transform modulus
computed from the first mode shape. Then the one-dimensional CWT of mode shapes is performed for
scales = l - 25. The modulus maxima value grows with the increase of the scale and clearly points to the
location of crack (Fig 4, 7).
Table 3 .Comparison of actual and predicted number and crack locations for cantilever
NO

Parameter

Actual Data

Number of Cracks

2
120
48

Cracks Location(mm)
Locations Error (%)
2

Number of cracks
Cracks Location(mm)
Locations Error (%)

Figure 3. Fundamental Vibration Mode Shape of

The Multiple Cracked Beam x1 = 0.483 (m),
a1 = 0.01(m), X2 = 0.1194 (m) and a2 = 0.008(m)

1
24

Predicted Data
Wavelet
2
119.4
48.3
0.5
0.6
1
26
8.3

ANN
2
111.93
48.05
6.73
0.1
1
24.15
0.63

Figure 6. Fundamental Vibration Mode Shape of

The Single Cracked Beam x1 = 0.26(m) and
a1 = 0.01(m)

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Figure 4. Wavelet Coefficients (Sym 4 Wavelet

Transform) In Multiple Cracked Beam x1 = 0.483
(m), a1 = 0.01(m), x2 = 0.1194 (m) and a 2 = 0.008(m)

Figure 5. Maxima Line of Wavelet Coefficients

(Sym 4 Wavelet Transform) In Multiple Cracked
Beam x1 = 0.483 (m), a 1 = 0.01(m), x2 = 0.1194 (m)
and a2 = 0.008(m)

Figure7. Wavelet Coefficients (Sym 4 Wavelet

Transform) In Single Cracked Beam x1 = 0.26(m)
and a1 = 0.01(m)

Figure 8. Maxima Line of Wavelet Coefficients

(Sym 4 Wavelet Transform) In Single Cracked
Beam x1 = 0.26 (m) and a 1 = 0.01(m)

The new techniques find local maxima of wavelet coefficients in multiple scales and then create a
line like path based on these maxima by connecting these points (Fig 5-8).
CONCLUTION
Two methods for crack detection in structures based on mode shapes and natural frequencies have
been presented and compared. The structure used in this research was a cantilever beam with rectangular
cross section. Firstly, a new method based on local maxima line of wavelet coefficient through different
scales and finite element method was applied. The advantage of this technique is that the crack detection
process is more clear and
comfortable than previous works. After this analysis, the process of crack identification has bee n performed
by using finite element method and combination of two types of artificial neural network including radial basis
neural network and back error propagation neural network. These techniques were employed to different
numbers and locations of cracks and results were acquired. Finally it is shown that cracks characteristics
from both of the methods were computed with good approximations.

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