Detecting Loosening of Bolted Connections in a Pipeline Using Changes in Natural Frequencies

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. He ◽  
W. D. Zhu

Loosening of bolted connections in a structure can significantly reduce its load-bearing capacity. Detecting loosening of bolted connections at an early stage can prevent failure of the structure. Due to the complex geometry of a bolted connection and material discontinuity between clamped components, it is difficult to detect loosening of a bolted connection using conventional nondestructive test methods. A vibration-based method that uses changes in natural frequencies of a structure to detect locations and extent of damage can be used to detect loosening of bolted connections since the method focuses on detecting a stiffness reduction, which can result from loosening of bolted connections. Experimental and numerical damage detection was conducted to detect loosening of bolted connections in a full-size steel pipeline with bolted flanges using the vibration-based method. With the recent development of a modeling technique for bolted connections in thin-walled structures, an accurate physics-based finite element model of the pipeline that is required by the vibration-based damage detection method is developed. A trust-region search strategy is employed to improve the damage detection method so that global convergence of the damage detection algorithm can be ensured for underdetermined systems, and robustness of the algorithm can be enhanced when relatively large modeling error and measurement noise are present. The location and extent of loosened bolted connections were successfully detected in experimental damage detection using changes in natural frequencies of the first several elastic modes of the pipeline; the exact location and extent of the loosened bolted connections can be detected in numerical simulation where there are no modeling error and measurement noise.

Author(s):  
K. He ◽  
W. D. Zhu

Loosening of bolted connections in a structure can significantly reduce the load-bearing capacities of the structure. Detecting loosening of bolted connections at an early stage can avoid failure of the structure. Due to the complex geometry of a bolted connection and the material discontinuity between the clamped components, it is difficult to detect loosening of a bolted connection using conventional non-destructive test methods. A vibration-based method that uses changes in natural frequencies of a structure to detect the locations and extent of damage can be used to detect loosening of bolted connections, since the method focuses on detecting a stiffness reduction, which can result from loosening of the bolted connections. Experimental and numerical damage detection using the vibration-based method was conducted to detect the loosening of the bolted connections in a fullsize steel pipeline with bolted flanges. With the recent development of a predictive modeling technique for bolted connections in thin-walled structures, an accurate physics-based finite element model of the pipeline that is required by the vibration-based damage detection method is developed. A trust-region search strategy is employed to improve the damage detection method so that convergence of the damage detection algorithm can be ensured for under-determined systems, and the robustness of the algorithm can be enhanced when relatively large modeling error and measurement noise are present. The location and extent of the loosened bolted connections were successfully detected in experimental damage detection using changes in the natural frequencies of the first several modes; the exact location and extent of the loosened bolted connections can be detected in the numerical simulation where there are no modeling error and measurement noise.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hien HoThu ◽  
Akira Mita

A method of detecting the location of damage in shear structures by using only the changes in first two natural frequencies of the translational modes is proposed. This damage detection method can determine the damage location in a shear building by using a Damage Location Index (DLI) based on two natural frequencies for undamaged and damaged states. In this study, damage is assumed to be represented by the reduction in stiffness. This stiffness reduction results in a change in natural frequencies. The uncertainty associated with system identification methods for obtaining natural frequencies is also carefully considered. Some simulations and experiments on shear structures were conducted to verify the performance of the proposed method.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Zhu ◽  
K. He

It is difficult to use conventional nondestructive testing methods to detect damage, such as loosening of bolted connections, in a space frame structure due to the complexity of the structure and the nature of the possible damage. A vibration-based method that uses changes in the natural frequencies of a structure to detect the locations and extent of damage in it has the advantage of being able to detect various types of damage in the structure, including loosening of bolted connections. Since the vibration-based method is model-based, applying it to a space frame structure with L-shaped beams and bolted joints will face challenges ranging from the development of an accurate dynamic model of the structure to that of a robust damage detection algorithm for a severely underdetermined, nonlinear least-square problem under the effects of relatively large modeling error and measurement noise. With the development of modeling techniques for fillets in thin-walled beams (He and Zhu, 2009, “Modeling of Fillets in Thin-Walled Beams Using Shell/Plate and Beam Finite Elements,” ASME J. Vib. Acoust., 131 (5), p. 051002) and bolted joints (He and Zhu, 2011, “Finite Element Modeling of Structures With L-shaped Beams and Bolted Joints,” ASME J. Vib. Acoust., 131(1), p. 011010) by the authors, accurate physics-based models of space frame structures can be developed with a reasonable model size. A new damage detection algorithm that uses a trust-region search strategy combined with a logistic function transformation is developed to improve the robustness of the vibration-based damage detection method. The new algorithm can ensure global convergence of the iterations and minimize the effects of modeling error and measurement noise. The damage detection method developed is experimentally validated on an aluminum three-bay space frame structure with L-shaped beams and bolted joints. Three types of introduced damage, including joint damage, member damage, and boundary damage, were successfully detected. In the numerical simulation where there are no modeling error and measurement noise, the almost exact locations and extent of damage can be detected.


Author(s):  
K. He ◽  
W. D. Zhu

It is difficult to use conventional non-destructive testing methods to detect damage, such as loosening of bolted connections, in a space frame structure due to the complexity of the structure and the nature of the possible damage. A vibration-based method that uses changes in the natural frequencies of a structure to detect the locations and extent of damage in it has the advantage of being able to detect various types of damage in the structure, including loosening of bolted connections. Since the vibration-based method is model-based, applying it to a space frame structure with L-shaped beams and bolted joints will face challenges ranging from the development of an accurate dynamic model of the structure to that of a robust damage detection algorithm for a severely under-determined, nonlinear least-square problem under the effects of relatively large modeling error and measurement noise. With the development of the modeling techniques for fillets in thin-walled beams (He and Zhu, 2009, “Modeling of Fillets in Thin-Walled Beams Using Shell/Plate and Beam Finite Elements,” ASME J. Vibr. Acoust., 131(5), p. 051002) and bolted joints (He and Zhu, “Finite Element Modeling of Structures with L-shaped Beams and Bolted Joints,” ASME J. Vibr. Acoust., p. 011010) by the authors, accurate physics-based models of space frame structures can be developed with a reasonable model size. A new damage detection algorithm that uses a trust-region search strategy combined with a logistic function transformation is developed to improve the robustness of the vibration-based damage detection method. The new algorithm can ensure global convergence of the iterations and minimize the effects of modeling error and measurement noise. The damage detection method developed is experimentally validated on an aluminum three-bay space frame structure with L-shaped beams and bolted joints. Three types of introduced damage, including joint damage, member damage, and boundary damage, were successfully detected. In the numerical simulation where there are no modeling error and measurrement noise, the almost exact locations and extent of damage can be detected.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147592172199847
Author(s):  
William Soo Lon Wah ◽  
Yining Xia

Damage detection methods developed in the literature are affected by the presence of outlier measurements. These measurements can prevent small levels of damage to be detected. Therefore, a method to eliminate the effects of outlier measurements is proposed in this article. The method uses the difference in fits to examine how deleting an observation affects the predicted value of a model. This allows the observations that have a large influence on the model created, to be identified. These observations are the outlier measurements and they are eliminated from the database before the application of damage detection methods. Eliminating the outliers before the application of damage detection methods allows the normal procedures to detect damage, to be implemented. A multiple-regression-based damage detection method, which uses the natural frequencies as both the independent and dependent variables, is also developed in this article. A beam structure model and an experimental wooden bridge structure are analysed using the multiple-regression-based damage detection method with and without the application of the method proposed to eliminate the effects of outliers. The results obtained demonstrate that smaller levels of damage can be detected when the effects of outlier measurements are eliminated using the method proposed in this article.


2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 651-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Devriendt ◽  
Flavio Presezniak ◽  
Gert De Sitter ◽  
Katy Vanbrabant ◽  
Tim De Troyer ◽  
...  

This article uses frequency domain transmissibility functions for detecting and locating damage in operational conditions. In recent articles numerical and experimental examples were presented and the possibility to use the transmissibility concept for damage detection seemed quite promising. In the work discussed so far, it was assumed that the operational conditions were constant, the structure was excited by a single input in a fixed location. Transmissibility functions, defined as a simple ratio between two measured responses, do depend on the amplitudes or locations of the operational forces. The current techniques fail in the case of changing operational conditions. A suitable operational damage detection method should however be able to detect damage in a very early stage even in the case of changing operational conditions. It will be demonstrated in this paper that, by using only a small frequency band around the resonance frequencies of the structure, the existing methods can still be used in a more robust way. The idea is based on the specific property that the transmissibility functions become independent of the loading condition in the system poles. A numerical and experimental validation will be given.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hien HoThu ◽  
Akira Mita

This study proposes damage detection algorithms for multistory shear structures that only need the first two or three natural frequencies. The methods are able to determine the location and severity of damage on the basis of damage location indices (DLI) and damage quantification indices (DQI) consisting of the changes in the first few squared natural frequencies of the undamaged and damaged states. The damage is assumed to be represented by a reduction in stiffness. This stiffness reduction causes a shift in the natural frequencies of the structure. The uncertainty associated with system identification methods for obtaining natural frequencies is also carefully considered. The methods are accurate and cost-effective means only requiring the changes in the natural frequencies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. E. Vasil’ev ◽  
Yu. G. Matvienko ◽  
A. V. Pankov ◽  
A. G. Kalinin

The results of using early damage diagnostics technique (developed in the Mechanical Engineering Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMASH RAN) for detecting the latent damage of an aviation panel made of composite material upon bench tensile tests are presented. We have assessed the capabilities of the developed technique and software regarding damage detection at the early stage of panel loading in conditions of elastic strain of the material using brittle strain-sensitive coating and simultaneous crack detection in the coating with a high-speed video camera “Video-print” and acoustic emission system “A-Line 32D.” When revealing a subsurface defect (a notch of the middle stringer) of the aviation panel, the general concept of damage detection at the early stage of loading in conditions of elastic behavior of the material was also tested in the course of the experiment, as well as the software specially developed for cluster analysis and classification of detected location pulses along with the equipment and software for simultaneous recording of video data flows and arrays of acoustic emission (AE) data. Synchronous recording of video images and AE pulses ensured precise control of the cracking process in the brittle strain-sensitive coating (tensocoating)at all stages of the experiment, whereas the use of structural-phenomenological approach kept track of the main trends in damage accumulation at different structural levels and identify the sources of their origin when classifying recorded AE data arrays. The combined use of oxide tensocoatings and high-speed video recording synchronized with the AE control system, provide the possibility of definite determination of the subsurface defect, reveal the maximum principal strains in the area of crack formation, quantify them and identify the main sources of AE signals upon monitoring the state of the aviation panel under loading P = 90 kN, which is about 12% of the critical load.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 211-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.G. Khakimov

Using three natural frequencies of torsional vibrations, it is possible to define the location and size of a transverse notch on the flywheel shaft.


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