In this paper, the dynamic response of a damaged double-beam system traversed by a moving load is studied, including passive control using multiple tuned mass dampers. The double-beam system is composed of two homogeneous isotropic Euler-Bernoulli beams connected by a viscoelastic layer. The damaged upper beam is simulated using a double-sided open crack replaced by an equivalent rotational spring between two beam segments, and the lower primary beam is subjected to a moving load. The load is represented by a moving Dirac delta function and by a quarter car model, respectively. Road surface roughness (RSR) is classified as per ISO 8606:1995(E). The effect of vehicle speed of the moving oscillator and variable RSR profiles on the dynamics of this damaged double Euler-Bernoulli beam system for different crack-depth ratios (CDRs) at various crack locations is studied. It is observed that coupling of two beams leads to a vehicular effect on the damaged beam, even when no vehicle on it is present. The effects of single and multiple tuned mass dampers to control the vibrational responses of the primary beam due to damage on the secondary beam is studied next. The performance of tuned mass dampers to reduce the transverse vibrations of the damaged double-beam system and of the quarter car is investigated. The paper links the coupling between the two levels of double beam with the inertial coupling of the vehicle to the double-beam system.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has been increasingly exploited in recent years as a valuable tool for assessing performance throughout the life cycle of structural systems, as well as for supporting decision-making and maintenance planning. Although a great assortment of SHM methods has been developed, only a limited number of studies exist serving as reference basis for the comparison of different techniques. In this paper, the vibration-based assessment of a small-scale wind turbine (WT) blade is experimentally investigated, with the aim of establishing a benchmark case study for the SHM community. The structure under consideration, provided by Sonkyo Energy as part of the Windspot 3.5 kW WT model, is tested in both healthy and damaged states under varying environmental, that is, temperature, conditions as imposed by means of a climatic chamber. This study offers a thorough documentation of the configuration of this experimental benchmark, including the types of deployed sensors, the nature of excitation and available measurements, and the investigated damage scenarios and environmental variations enforced. Lastly, an overview of the raw and processed measurement data, made available to researchers via an open access Zenodo repository, is herein provided.

This contribution presents novel results on feed-forward control of stress in piezoelectric structures by means of piezoelectric actuation. For that sake, we focus on a one-dimensional benchmark problem, a piezoelectric transducer that is excited by a piezoelectric stack actuator. We investigate the following problem: Is it possible to actuate the piezoelectric transducer in such a manner that the dominant axial stress component is nullified. In order to find a theoretical solution for this question, we discretize our system as a two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) model. The equations of motion are transformed into the differential equations for the inner forces by taking advantage of the constitutive relations, which relate displacement, stress, and electric field. Finally, we find a mathematical relation for the piezoelectric transducer excitation in order to annihilate the transducer force. A static and a frequency-dependent approximate solution for the transducer actuation signal are derived. The latter solution reduces the inner force drastically in a certain frequency range. After numerical results for the force-control algorithm are presented, we finally experimentally verify our theory: First, the force-controlled configuration is exposed to a monofrequent harmonic excitation test run for 30 min, showing no sign of fatigue or material failure, because the transducer force is below the ultimate tensile strength. Then, the system is excited by the same harmonic excitation again, but the control signal for the piezoelectric transducer is turned off. The result is a visible damage of the piezoelectric transducer, leading to a significant change of the first eigenfrequency.