Abstract
A new method is proposed for the fault detection and health monitoring of smart structures. The Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA), a time-domain system identification algorithm, is applied to estimate the system matrix and to detect a system failure by monitoring the variation the eigenvalues of the estimated system matrix. Numerical simulations are carried out for a flexible cantilever beam equipped with piezoelectric actuators and sensors. The results of the numerical simulations show that the present method is feasible to detect the small variation in the stiffness parameter of the flexible beam by using the estimated eigenvalues.
