Abstract
This paper describes a damage identification method for beam structures based on the local flexibility. A modal flexibility-based damage indices that have simple and intuitive physical interpretation is presented. Since the proposed damage indices are computed using angular mode shapes of the lowest several modes, MEMS gyroscopes are adopted as the sensing device. The bandwidth of the MEMS gyroscope is experimentally investigated to show the feasibility of MEMS gyro-based damage monitoring. Experiments using a bolted beam are conducted to show the applicability of the proposed algorithm to the detection of loose bolt failures.
