A Novel Vibration Response-Based Approach to Monitor Faults in Bolted Complex Structures

Since bolted complex structures are easily subjected to faults like fatigue crack/bolt loosening during their service, monitoring faults is very meaningful and helpful for them. Therefore, a novel vibration response-based approach for monitoring faults in bolted complex structures is proposed in this chapter. In this new approach, bolted complex structures are simplified as some discrete substructures, whose nonlinear dynamics are studied by a nonlinear multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) mode. By stimulating the structure many times with different magnitudes, nonlinear features from the substructure to be monitored only are defined, and a novel fault index and corresponding approach are proposed accordingly. With some experimental studies on a lab-bolted complex structure, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is fully vindicated.