Damage detection using proper orthogonal decompositionapplied to a plate structure

In many fields of engineering the structural components have to be in continuous use, despite aging and the unavoidable risk of damage growth and consequent possible failure. In this paper a technique based on the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) will be presented and applied (numerically and experimentally) to the damage detection on a plate. The numerical results provide useful information on the effect of the grid size of the sensors versus the damage severity for different types of excitation (sine, random) and the noise level effect. The experimental verification using the POD method on the acceleration data demonstrate that it has been possible to locate the defects in a cantilevered plate, furthermore, the analysis of experimental data highlights the sensitivity of the method to the modification on boundary condition.