Abstract
This paper describes a study on an inverse analysis method to identify the crack parameters of beam with two cracks by the simple genetic algorithm. The cracks are 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 Bernoulli-Euler beam thory. In order to identify the crack locations and the depths 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 numerical simulation of some sample problems.
