Crack fault quantitative diagnosis based on finite element of B-spline wavelet on the interval

The model-based forward and inverse problems in the diagnosis of structural crack faults were studied. The forward problem is to solve the natural frequencies through a cracked structural model and the inverse problem is to quantitatively determine the crack parameters using the experimental testing frequencies. Then, the one-dimensional crack element of B-spline wavelet on the interval (BSWI) was built to solve the forward problem. Contour plots of normalized crack location versus normalized crack size were plotted by using the first three natural frequencies as the inputs. The intersection of the three curves predicted the normalized crack location and size. The experimental study verified the validity of the wavelet-based crack element in solving crack singular problems to overcome the disadvantages of the traditional finite element method (FEM), such as low efficiency, insufficient accuracy, slow convergence to correct solutions, etc. At the same time, it had adequate identification precision. The new method can be applied to prognosis and quantitative diagnosis of incipient crack.