Effect of a breathing crack on the damping changes in nonlinear vibrations of a cracked beam: Experimental and theoretical investigations

The attempts to identify damping changes in a cracked beam can improve the accuracy of the nonlinear crack identification method. For the purpose of this aim, a parametric nonlinear equation of motion is obtained using the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and parametric nonlinear breathing crack assumptions. Several experiments were conducted to identify the effect of breathing cracks on changing the damping value in nonlinear vibrations of a cracked beam. Experimental tests have revealed that increasing the crack depth and the level of excitation enlarges the damping coefficient in a vibrating beam. For this reason, the effects of the excitation force and crack depth on the structural damping coefficient are investigated. The obtained results indicated that considering the nonlinear response of a cracked beam and measuring the value of the damping changes can significantly improve the accuracy of the nonlinear crack identification method.