Adaptive-scale damage detection strategy for plate structures based on wavelet finite element model

This study establishes an adaptive-scale damage detection strategy based on a wavelet finite element model (WFEM) for thin plate structures. Equations of motion and corresponding lifting schemes for thin plate structures are derived when the tensor products of cubic Hermite multi-wavelets are taken as the elemental interpolation functions. Sub-element damages are localized with the use of the change ratio of modal strain energy. Subsequently, such damages are adaptively quantified by using a damage quantification equation, which is deduced from differential equations of plate structure motion. WFEM scales are spatially varying and dynamically changing according to actual needs. Numerical examples clearly demonstrate that the proposed strategy can progressively locate and quantify plate damages. The strategy can operate efficiently in terms of the degrees-of-freedom in WFEM and sensors in the vibration test.