Bueno D., Marqui C., Cordeiro L., Lopes Júnior V.

Nowadays there is great interest in structural damage detection in systems using non- destructive tests. Once the failure found, as for instance a crack, it is possible to take providence’s. There are several different approaches that can be used to obtain information about the existence, location and extension of the fault in the system by non destructive tests. Among these methodologies, one can mention different optimization techniques, as for instance classical methods, genetic algorithms, neural networks, etc. Most of these techniques, which are based on element-by-element adjustments of a finite element (FE) model, take advantage of the dynamic behavior of the model. In this paper, it is proposed an experimental technique for damage location. This technique is based on Hankel norm to obtain damage location in a beam. The model is identified using experimental data by eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA). The experiment was carrying through varying the mass of an element of the structure. For the output signal was used a piezoelectric sensor. The signal of input of sine form was generated through SignalCalc software.