Damage localisation in plate like-structures using the two-dimensional polynomial annihilation edge detection method

Abstract The topic of non-destructively detecting localised damage in plates is addressed in this article. Since the presence of a crack or a delamination causes a discontinuity in the mode shape first derivatives, a numerical method for detecting discontinuities in smooth piecewise functions and their derivatives, based on a polynomial-annihilation technique is presented. The method, already proposed for beam-type structures, has been extended to enable the detection and localisation of damage in plate-like structures for which only post-damage mode shapes are available. Applying finite element analysis, the mode shapes of an isotropic plate with a saw-cut and a multi-layered composite plate with a delamination have been calculated and the performance of the approach evaluated for increasing amounts of noise. Encouraging results indicate that further development of the technique for non-destructive testing of plate-like structures would be highly worthwhile.