Damage Detection of FRP Composite Plates from Dynamical Responses using Finite Element Model Updating: Equivalent Material Properties as Parameters

Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) composite structures are extensively used in weight sensitive applications, such as in aircrafts, ships, etc. Such structures are susceptible to damages during their usual operation or during extreme loading from environment. Due to the anisotropic nature of FRP composite plates, damage detection is difficult for such layered materials particularly when the damage site is inaccessible. The localised loss of stiffness resulting from damage is reflected into the global dynamic responses of such structures. Finite element model updating is a convenient inverse approach in which these changes in stiffness due to damages are estimated from measured dynamical responses using optimization. The equivalent stiffness changes can be expressed in terms of either geometric or material property or both. In most of the cases, changes in geometric parameters physically represent the actual damage scenario with larger sensitivity. On the other hand, material property changes in the damaged area are a very convenient parameter to deal with. In the present work, updating parameters in the finite element model updating procedure are chosen in terms of material property. Detection of local stiffness changes from experimentally measured natural frequencies, mode shapes and/or frequency response functions are investigated. Experimental modal testing is performed on a rectangular FRP composite plate both in its undamaged and damaged state. Baseline finite element model of the composite plate is correlated with experimental model, followed by a sensitivity based finite element model updating algorithm. The results show the rapid convergence and accurate determination of local stiffness change in terms of elastic material parameters alone in all three orthogonal directions. This indicates that material properties like the in-plane Young’s moduli and in-plane Shear modulus within the localised region of damage, can well be used as convenient means for detecting equivalent stiffness loss in damaged structures.