Abstract
This paper describes a study on an inverse analysis method to identify the crack parameters of non-uniform beams by the simple genetic algorithm. The crack is simulated by an equivalent rotational spring model. By using this approximate model, a characteristic equation to calculate the natural frequencies of the system are derived employing the Rayleigh-Ritz method. In order to identify the crack location and the depth of the beam from frequency measurements, objective function that consists of the sum of square errors of frequencies is formed. The genetic algorithm is used to search the minimum value of the objective function. The proposed method is verified by the numerical simulation of some sample problems.
