JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.

ORG

113

The Use of ANN for Cracks Predictions in Curvilinear Beams Based on their Natural Frequencies and Frequency Response Functions
R. A. Saeed, L. E. George
AbstractThis paper presents the results of using different arrangements of feed forward neural network (ANN) for crack prediction in curvilinear beams. The prediction process is based on the feeding the vibration characteristic as input data. The adopted vibration characteristics include: Natural Frequencies (n) and Frequency Response Functions (FRFs). The introduced ANNs were used to estimate the size of the crack and its location. The finite element method (FEM) has been applied to compute the vibration characteristics for intact and damaged beams. To avoid the establishment of large ANN arrangements the data reduction techniques were utilized to reduce the input set of computed natural frequencies (n) and Frequency Response functions (FRFs). The analysis results revealed that the reduced arrangements of ANN can give a satisfactory prediction results; this reflects encouraging sign about the use of ANN for damage identification. Index Terms Crack identification, Artificial Neural Network, Data reduction techniques, Vibration analysis.

1 INTRODUCTION
The existence of damage introduces a local flexibility in a structure [1] which leads to the reduction of the stiffness and stability, and could also affect its damping properties [2]. Consequently, the vibration characteristics of the structure would also change. These changes can be measured accurately and then used in a non-destructive method to evaluate the damage state [3]. Significant efforts have been spend for developing different fault detection and diagnosis approaches for damage identification in structures based on vibration characteristics [4, 5] including natural frequencies (n) and Frequency Response Functions (FRFs). Measured amplitudes of FRFs are often used for damage identification with satisfactory accuracy [6]. For instance, Huynh et al. [7] used measured FRFs data for damage detection in truss structure and a plate structure. Apart from amplitudes of FRFs, some authors use the changes in natural frequencies to estimate the size and locations of the cracks in different structures [1, 5, 8, 9, 10]. Analytical and experimental investigations for the crack identification in a cantilever beam based on the change in natural frequencies have been conducted by [4]. Several authors presented analytical and numerical models to investigate the influence of cracks on vibration characteristics of the structure [9, 10]. A detailed literature review of the various methods for damage detection in different structures by using natural frequencies as a diagnostic parameter has been reported by [11]. Several

R. A. Saeed, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Iraq. L. E. George, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

authors employed both natural frequencies and FRFs simultaneously to identify faults in structures [2, 5, 12, 13]. All these studies indicate that there is a link between the change in the natural frequencies and amplitude of FRFs with the size and location of the crack. Therefore, vibration-based methods have been intended for the identification of damage in structures. Different Artificial Intelligent (AI) techniques are applied for fault detection, such as fuzzy logic, artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithms (GA) [14]. It is reported that ANN approach can be applied for damage detection [14] by training the neural network to recognise given patterns and to classify other untrained patterns [15]. The ANN technique based on vibration characteristics have been used for damage identification in different structures, such as: beam structure [12], truss and frame structures [16], rectangular plate [14], truss structure [15] and composite frames [17]. They showed that the vibration characteristics change when structure components deteriorate or defects start to develop. The large number of input nodes is the main obstacle of training of ANN technique with input data sets. Selection of all spectral lines of the FRFs and natural frequencies is excessive for training ANN models directly. To avoid large models, a subset of the FRFs data sets can be used by considering fewer measurement points [18]. Angelakis et al. [19] reduced the neural network input to 27 selected frequencies from the whole frequency range. Jnior and Turra [20] subdivided the range of frequency, which contained 512 points, into five intervals and selected the maximum amplitude from each interval. Zang et al. [18] proposed the PCA approach for reduction of the computed FRFs data sets.

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

114

The aim of this study is to investigate the accuracy of different ANN models for prediction of cracks in curvilinear beams based upon changes in natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs. The finite element method (FEM) is applied to determine the natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs for the intact and damaged curvilinear beams with various crack lengths at different locations. In order to investigate the reducing dimensionality problem, two different data reduction techniques have been proposed. Achieved data sets of reduced FRFs and natural frequencies are used for training different models of feedforward artificial neural network (FFANN) to predict crack parameters (length and location). Each data set of natural frequencies and FRFs was used separately for training of an appropriate single ANN to identify the crack parameters, and then the two data sets were aggregated together and used for training a multiple ANN (MNN) model. Subsequently, the prediction capabilities of these models are compared. The ANN models are applied to the simplified model of the turbine runner blade represented by a curvilinear beam [21, 22] to investigate the possibility of cracks detection in the turbine runner.

ried to have values lays in the range of =90 to 125. The crack is assumed to be perpendicular to the neutral axis of the beam. Because of the symmetry, only cracks in the left-hand side of the curvilinear beam are studied. Eighteen locations have been selected in this domain, from (90 to 124) with the step of 2. Thirty different crack lengths varying from 2mm to 60mm have been considered in each location. Figure 2 shows a thirty curvilinear beam with a 2mm to 60mm crack length at the location specified by the angle =110. In total, 540 simulations have been carried out (30 crack lengths times 18 locations) and one simulation without crack, therefore 541 data sets for natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs has been generated.

2 METHODOLOGY
The proposed approach consists of three stages: data acquisition, feature extraction and crack identification. At the first step, the values of n & FRFs have been calculated using FEM for the intact and damaged curvilinear beams with cracks of different lengths and at different locations. In the second step, proposed approaches have been applied to reduce the dimensionality of natural frequency and FRFs data set. In the final step, the achieved data sets including natural frequency and amplitude of FRFs are used for training of an appropriate ANN models to identify the cracks.

Fig. 1. Three dimensional model of curvilinear beam

2.1 Finite Element Modelling (FEM) for Data acquisition

Three-dimensional FEM models have been employing in order to generate the data sets of natural frequencies (n) and amplitudes of FRFs for intact and damaged curvilinear beams, with a single crack. Vibration analyses have been performed by applying FEM to compute natural frequencies and FRFs for intact and damaged beams. A number of simulations have been performed for various crack lengths at different locations. In this study, a curvilinear beam with internal radius of 1.8m, thickness of 0.03m and width of 0.1m is considered, as shown in figure 1. The beam is made of steel with the following properties [22]: modulus of elasticity (E) is 210x109 N/m2, Poissons ratio () is 0.28 and density () is 7840 kg/m3. The curvilinear beam is assumed to be fixed at both ends. The FEM involves discretization of the beam into a number of elements. The number of tetrahedral elements is taken 5910 and the number of nodes is set 31834. Cracks in the beam can be characterized by two parameters, the crack length (L) and the angle () that describes crack location. The location of the crack was vaFig. 2. Different crack lengths varying from 2mm to 60mm at angle of (=110)

2.2 Implementation of Reduction Techniques for Feature Extraction

The size of the generation natural frequencies vectors and FRFs data sets was represented by 20 natural frequencies and 500 spectral lines in each measurement. Each spectral line is represented by a portion of the frequency spectrum (1 Hz). Selection of all spectral lines of the FRFs and natural frequencies is excessive for training ANN models directly. In such instances, for neural network training, a very large number of samples are needed. Even if the issues concerning the training time and convergence could be overcome by high computer memory and fast CPU; it may lead to unstable model and over-fitting problems [18]. In order to avoid large and complexity of models, data reduction techniques have been carry out for reduction of the computed FRFs and natural frequencies data sets.

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

115

High numbers of input data may make the ANN performance unstable. Therefore, in order to reduce dimensionality in the input layer, different techniques have been proposed. The calculated amplitudes of FRFs and natural frequencies, as shown in figure 4 and 6, are arranged into a matrix with 541 rows representing natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs for the damaged (540 cases) and intact (1 case) beams. The number of spectral lines and natural frequencies are taken 500 and 20, respectively, which represent the number of columns. The reduced FRFs and natural frequencies data sets are obtained by gradually reduction the number of natural frequencies and spectral lines. These techniques allowed us to significantly reduce the amount of required FRFs and natural frequencies data sets. These approaches are applied to FRFs matrix (541x500) and n matrix (541x20) to achieve an acceptable data reduction level. The new data sets of natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs are used as input vectors to the FFANN classifier models as an alternative to using the original data sets. Such truncation of data sets has very little effect on the accuracy of the classifier results but considerably reduces the number of inputs into the models. In this study, in order to investigate the required number of neurons in the input layer of the NN, two different techniques have been proposed, and we have used MATLAB to implement and simulate each technique.

the training, testing and validation data sets are loaded. The applied method for selecting the nodes to be deleted is based on the values of best weights matrix between input and first hidden. In this technique and after training ANN, the variance of each column of weight in the best weight matrix is determined which is representing the variance of weights between each input frequency/neuron with all neuron in the first hidden layer. The input frequency/neuron with the low variance weights in the best weight matrix has less effect on the model; therefore this frequency/neuron is removed from the training, testing, and validation data sets permanently. In the next attempt, the ANN will be training again with the new input data sets after removing one of the input frequency/neuron from the input data sets. Then the variance of each column of weight in the best weight matrix is determined. Next, the input frequency/neuron with the minimum variance in the weight matrix is eliminated from the training, testing, and validation data sets permanently. The explained procedures continue until the satisfactory reduction number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer of the NN.

2.3 Crack Identification

Based on the fact that the measured response contains information on the crack parameters (length and position), the adopted FFANN classifiers have been implemented using MATLAB Code. There is no feasible algorithmic solution for the crack identification in the complex structure [23]. In this case, an ANN can be considered as the crack detector/classifier tool. Each data set of natural frequencies and FRFs was used separately for training of an appropriate single ANN to identify the crack parameters, and then the two data sets were aggregated together and used for training a multiple ANN to improve the crack identification.

2.2.1 The First Proposed Technique

In the first proposed technique, to determine the required number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer the training, testing and validation data sets are loaded. In the first step, for training NN the number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer is reduced sequentially, 1 input frequency/neuron at each attempt. For the first attempt, 1st frequency/neuron is eliminated from the input data sets then ANN is trained and tested with the new data sets. In the second attempt, 1st frequency/neuron is returned back to the input data sets and the 2nd frequency/neuron is eliminated from the input data sets then ANN is trained and tested. In the third attempt, 2nd frequency/neuron is retained back to input data sets and the 3rd frequency/neuron is eliminated from the input data sets and then ANN is trained and tested. This process is continuing until the last frequency/neuron is reduced. In the next step, the summation of correlation coefficients between predicted and existence data for each attempt have been determined. In the final step, the maximum correlation coefficients are identified which are corresponding to one of the attempts, and then the frequency/neuron that is eliminated in this attempt is removed from the input data sets permanently. The explained procedure is continuing until reaching the satisfactory reduction number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer of the ANN.

2.3.1 Implementation of ANN Using Natural Frequency and FRFs

The implementation of a neural network model includes the training and testing phases. In the training phase, two models (Model 1 and 2) of the feed-forward neural networks were trained, separately, using BP algorithm. These two ANNs are trained by feeding predetermined natural frequencies and FRFs data sets. These data sets reflect the response of all possible cracks sizes and locations, as well as the response of the beam without cracks. A sufficient number of combinations of input and output pairs were used for training purpose to make the network well trained network and capable do make good predictions. Afterwards, the trained ANN model is tested on data sets that have not been used in the training process. For crack identification, changes in natural frequencies or FRFs alone may not be sufficient, because the change in a particular frequency could be attributed to different crack lengths and locations. Also, cracks of the same lengths but at different locations may cause similar changes in frequencies, which are too close to differentiate. It is expected that the overall accuracy can be improved by combining the two FFANN networks. The

2.2.2 Second Proposed Technique

In the second proposed technique, to determine the required number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

116

combination of multiple neural networks by using data fusion techniques can improve neural network generalisation capability, as reported by [24]. The architecture of the proposed combined multiple ANN model (Model-3) is presented in figure 3.

For all considered simulations, the natural frequencies undergo a noticeable change at each crack location, especially for long cracks. However, the frequencies depend on the crack length change in different patterns for different crack locations depending upon the mode shapes of the beam.

3.2 Forced Vibration Analyses of the Beam

Forced vibration analyses of a curvilinear beam with various cracks have been performed by using FEM to obtain amplitudes of FRFs. Figure 5 shows the amplitudes of FRFs versus the excitation frequencies depending on crack locations and sizes. The first 500 frequencies were calculated and 500 spectral lines were selected for the frequency range 1-500 Hz. These procedures have been repeated for the prescribed 541 different cases.

Fig. 3. Architecture of multiple ANN

2.2.2 Multiple Artificial Neural Networks

The combination of several neural networks has been termed stacked neural network (SNN) or multiple neural networks (MNN) [25, 26]. All individual neural networks are combined instead of training several networks and choosing the best network, which improves the overall prediction error that could be made smaller than the individual errors for each individual NN. As shown in figure 3, the model consists of two individual neural networks where natural frequencies are used as input data for the first neural network and the amplitudes of FRFs are used as input data for the second neural network.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Beam Natural Frequencies
The natural frequencies of the intact curvilinear beam corresponding to the first twenty modes are listed in table 1. The natural frequencies were computed for 30 different crack lengths, from 2mm to 60mm with a step of 2mm, at 18 different locations, from (90 to 124) with a step of 2. TABLE 1 NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF THE BEAM IN HZ
Fig. 5. FRFs amplitudes of a beam for 20 cracks at 14 locations

As evident from figure 5 both the crack location and the crack length affect the amplitudes of FRFs, but the change in amplitudes is different for every crack location for the same crack size. Furthermore, the amplitude of FRFs increases as the crack grows in size. Figure 6 shows a three-dimensional plot of the changes, in decibels, for the curvilinear beam with a crack depending on its location and lengths. As seen, the changes of the measured amplitude of FRFs of the beams are very sensitive to the crack location and size.

The variations of the first twenty natural frequencies for 541 simulations of the left half of the curvilinear beam are shown in figure 4.

Fig. 6. FRFs amplitudes in dB for the beam and for 20 cracks at 14 locations Fig. 4. The changes in natural frequencies (for twenty modes) of the beam depending on crack length and crack location

Changes in amplitudes of the FRFs are obtained from the forced vibration analysis providing necessary information for the crack identification in the beams by corre-

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

117

lating dynamic response data of a structure with the crack characteristics.

3.3.3 Implementation of ANN Using Natural Frequency and FRFs

It was revealed from experiments that the neural network may not be able to represent the system adequately if the number of hidden layers and hidden neurons in the neural network is too small. On the other hand, it becomes over-trained if the network is too big [15]. In the following subsections the number of the hidden layer and number of neuron in the hidden layer(s) and also the required number of neurons in the input layer for training Model 1&2 are investigated. The performance of Model-1 with one hidden layer has been examined with a different number of neurons. The number of hidden neurons varied starting from 1 neuron to twice number of input frequencies (i.e., 20). The natural frequencies data sets (each consist of 20 natural frequencies) have been used as input for training ANN models; the crack parameters (crack length and location) represent the output. After training FFANN, the correlation coefficient and MSE values for the prediction results of the crack length and location have been determined, and the results are shown in the figure 7 and 8.

3.3 Classifier Results

Natural frequencies and FRFs data sets have been used to train three different models of ANN in order to identify the crack parameters (length and location). First, the data sets of natural frequencies and FRFs have been used separately for training two different ANN models (Model 1 and 2). Then, both the natural frequency and FRFs data sets have been used together to train multiple ANN (Model-3).

3.3.1 Learning Algorithm

Natural frequencies and FRFs data sets are used as input for training the adopted FFANN classifier; the crack parameters (crack length and location) represent the output. The complete data sets (541 patterns) are divided into three subsets. The first subset, 80% (433 patterns) of the complete data sets was selected, randomly, to be used for training, while the remaining 10% (54 patterns) have been used for validation and the remaining 10% for testing. The effectiveness and the accuracy of the trained model are examined using the testing data sets, while the validation data set is used to optimise the performance of the classifier model by stopping the training process when the validation error starts to increase as the classifier becomes over fitted [27, 28]. During the learning process, a number of different multi-layer FFANN arrangements have been investigated to determine the best possible number of hidden layers and the neurons number in each hidden layer. The ANN has been tested for many combinations of training rates: (0.005, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.3) and momentum: (0.6, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9). For the neural network model using natural frequencies (Model-1), it was found that the lowest value of MSE could be further reduced by decreasing the learning rate value to 0.005, the momentum rate was set 0.6. For the neural network model using FRFs (Model-2), the momentum and the learning rate were fixed at 0.6 and 0.001, respectively. Hyperbolic tangent function is used as the activation function for hidden layer neurons. The sigmoid function is used as the activation function for output layer neurons. After that, instead of training two networks and choosing the best network, Model-1 and Model-2 are combined to produce Model-3. Data sets of FRFs and natural frequencies are assembled together for training Model-3 in order to improve the overall estimation error. The neural networks were able to learn the relationship between natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs with the corresponding damage state. The training process is terminated when there is no error improvement for a limited number of cycles, or when the mean square error (MSE) for training samples falls below a specified limit, typically below 0.001 [29, 30] , or when it reaches the maximum number of iterations. In this study the maximum number of iterations is set 10000 epochs.

Fig. 7. The correlation coefficient for the prediction results of the crack length and location using natural frequencies data sets (20 natural frequencies)

Fig. 8. The MSE for the prediction results of the crack length and location using natural frequencies data sets (20 natural frequencies)

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

118

As evident from the obtained results, the correlation coefficients for the estimation of crack length and location of all NNs are around 0.97 and 0.78, respectively. The investigations showed that one hidden layer NN with 9 hidden neurons at the hidden layer had produced the best predictions of the crack parameters, where the correlation coefficients are 0.99 and 0.88 for the prediction of the crack length and location, respectively. Additionally, the corresponding MSE to estimate the crack parameters are 8.01 and 23.25, respectively. In this section, the performance of Model-1 with two hidden layers has been examined for different number of neurons (from 1 neuron to 40) in each hidden layer, to select the required number of neurons in each of the hid-

den layers. Natural frequencies data sets (20 natural frequencies) have been used as input for training FFANN models; the crack parameters (crack length and location) represent the output. After training FFANN, the correlation coefficient and MSE values for prediction of the crack length and location for different numbers of the neurons in each hidden layer have been computed and the results are presented in the figure 9 and 10. As demonstrated in the above figures, the correlation coefficients obtained from testing all trained NNs are more than 0.95 and 0.75 for the prediction of crack length and location, respectively. The achieved results showed that the use of two hidden layers NN (with 7 neurons in the first hidden layer and 9 neurons in the second hidden layer) are suitable to get best predictions of the crack parameters; where the correlation coefficients are 0.99 and 0.90 for the prediction of the crack length and location, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding MSE to estimate the crack length and location are 6.67 and 18.83, respectively. Based on the investigation on the number of hidden layers and number of neurons in each hidden layer, it can be concluded that one hidden layer NN with 9 neurons is sufficient to estimate the crack length and predict the location of the crack. Therefore, one hidden layer NN with 9 hidden neurons has been used in the next section. The performance behaviour of one hidden layer NN with 9 neurons in the hidden layer for the prediction of the crack length and location is illustrated in figure 11.

Fig. 9. The correlation coefficient to estimate the: (A) crack length and (B) crack location using natural frequencies data sets (20 natural frequencies)

Fig. 11. Prediction of the: (A) crack length and (B) crack location using natural frequencies data sets (20 natural frequencies)

3.3.4 Testing Number of Natural Frequencies for Training ANN

In this section, the required number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer of Model-1 is investigated. In order to reduce the number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer of the NN and also to obtain a satisfactory number of frequencies/neurons, data reduction techniques have been applied. The details of these two techniques are explained in the previous sections. The implementation of these techniques have been utilized for Model-1, the correlation coefficients and MSE values obtained from testing a trained NN corresponding to eliminate natural frequency number are presented in table 2 (for first technique) and table 3 (for second technique). From table 2 it can be seen that all NNs demonstrated relatively good accuracy for estimation of the crack length and location by implementation first data reduction technique. As illustrated in the table, the model gives the

Fig. 10. The MSE of the estimation results for: (A) the crack length and (B) crack location using natural frequencies data sets (20 natural frequencies)

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

119

highest correlation coefficients and lowest value of MSE when the frequency/neuron number (12) is eliminated from the training, testing and validating input data sets. Next, by removing frequency/neuron number (15) from the input data sets, the trained NN gives the best results. This procedure is continuing until the number of inputs is reduced to 3 inputs frequencies/neurons. The investigation shows that reducing the number of frequencies/neurons in the input layer to 7 neurons (2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, and 16) makes the NN to predict the crack parameters more efficiently. However, it is evident from table 2 that the last 3 natural frequencies remaining from the input data sets (4, 8, and 16) are sufficient to identify the crack in the beam. Furthermore, reducing the number of inputs to three frequencies/neurons in the input layer of the ANN gives satisfactory resultss. TABLE 2 THE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS AND MSE VALUES OBTAINED FROM TESTING A TRAINED NN CORRESPONDING TO ELIMINATED THE NATURAL FREQUENCYS NUMBER

TABLE 3 THE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS AND MSE VALUES OBTAINED FROM TESTING TRAINED NN CORRESPONDING TO THE SUBSEQUENTIAL ELIMINATION OF NATURAL FREQUENCIES

While for the second dimensional reduction mechanism, after training the NN and computing the variance of each column of weights in the best weight matrix, the results show that the frequency/neuron number (11) has a minimum variance, as shown in table 3, this indicates that this frequency/neuron has less effect than other neurons. Therefore, eliminating this frequency/neuron in the training, testing and validation input data has little effects on the results. In the next step, the NN is retrained with new training, testing, and validation input data sets (with 19 neurons). After training the NN with new data sets, the variance of each column of weight in the best weight matrix were calculated, the results show that the neuron/frequency number (14) has a minimum variance. Therefore this frequency/neuron is eliminated from the training, testing, and validating input data sets. This procedure continued till the number of input is reduced to 3 input frequencies/neurons. The investigations showed that reducing the number of inputs to 3 frequencies/neurons (3, 8, and 16) in the input layer of the NN gives satisfactory results, and the NN can predict the crack parameters efficiently. These three frequencies/neurons (3, 8, and 16) are sufficient to reflect the informatics part of the natural frequency data set that relevant to crack parameters. Thus these 3 natural frequencies have been used further on. Consequently, the original natural frequencies array of 541x20 is reduced to 541x3.

By comparing the obtained results in table 2 and 3, one can conclude that the reducing number of input frequencies/neurons based on the variance of each column of weights in the best weight matrix give satisfactory results compared with the reducing number of input frequencies/neurons based on the best correlation coefficients. It is evident from table 2 and 3 that computation of the 3 natural frequencies is enough to identify the crack in the beam, which is in agreement with Owolabi et al. (2003) and Yang at el. (2001). The determined correlation coefficients and MSE of the prediction results of the crack parameters are listed in table 2 and 3; which indicate the reliability of the results obtained by these techniques. As, a next test step, the obtained 3 natural frequencies data sets are used as input data sets for examining the performance of the FFANN with one hidden layer (Model-1) the number of neurons in the hidden layer was varied (from 1 to 40 neurons), to determine the best number of neurons in the hidden layer. The learning rate and momentum are fixed at 0.005 and 0.9, respectively. The correlation coefficient and MSE values for prediction results of the crack length and location for testing NN using reduced natural frequencies data sets with different numbers of the neurons in the hidden layer have been determined and the results are presented in figure 12 and 13.

Fig. 12. The correlation coefficient for the prediction results of the crack length and location using natural frequencies data sets (3 natural frequencies)

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

120

3.3.5 Testing of ANN Using Amplitudes of FRFs

In this section, in order to select the required number of neurons in the hidden layer for the ANN using amplitudes of FRFs (Model-2), one hidden layer NN with different number of neurons in its hidden layer (from 1 neuron to 40) has been examined. FRFs data sets (500 spectral lines) are used as input for training ANN models; the crack parameters (crack length and location) represent the output. The correlation coefficient and MSE values for predicting the crack length and location for different numbers of the neurons in the hidden layer have been determined and the results are shown in figure 15 and 16.

Fig. 13. MSE for the prediction of the crack length and location using natural frequencies data sets (3 natural frequencies)

As evident from the obtained results, the correlation coefficients for all cases are more than 0.96 and 0.87 for the estimation of the crack length and location, respectively. The investigations revealed that one hidden layer NN with 6 hidden neurons in the hidden layer give the best results, where the correlation coefficients are 0.98 and 0.94 for the prediction of the crack length and location, respectively. Furthermore, the corresponding MSE to estimate the crack length and location are 10.59 and 12.96, respectively. The predicted results of the crack length and location by using one hidden layer NN with 6 neurons in the hidden layer are shown in figure 14 when the number of the neurons in the input layer is fixed to 3 frequencies/neurons. The tests showed that the lowest value of MSE could be further reduced by changing the learning rate value to 0.005. The momentum rate was set 0.9. Figure 14 shows the accuracy of the crack length and location prediction during the testing process. The testing results reveal that Model-1 can predict the existence of a crack in the curvilinear beam effectively.

Fig. 15. The correlation coefficient for the prediction results of the crack length and location using FRFs data sets (500 spectral lines)

Fig. 14. Scatter plot of prediction results of the: (A) crack length and (B) crack location, using natural frequencies data sets (3 natural frequencies)

Fig. 16. The MSE for the prediction results of the crack length and location using FRFs data sets (500 spectral lines)

The test results show that NN can reliably recognize the extent of the damage (see figure 14), it shows a better classification performance compared to the NN (see figure 11). Furthermore, the comparison between correlation coefficients (0.99 and 0.88, 0.98 and 0.94) and MSE values (8.01 and 23.25, 10.59 and 12.96) of the prediction results related to of the crack length and location before and after reducing input data respectively. This indicates the reliability of data reduction technique.

As illustrated in the above figures, the calculated correlation coefficients are around 0.94 and 0.84 for the prediction of crack length and location, respectively. The investigations showed that the use of one hidden layer NN consist of 8 neurons in the hidden layers give the best results, where the correlation coefficients are 0.97 and 0.92 for the prediction of the crack length and location, respectively, and the corresponding MSE to estimate the crack length and location are 20.50 and 15.67, respectively.

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

121

In this section, the performance of FFANN Model-2 with two hidden layers has been examined with different number of neurons (from 1 neuron to 40) in each hidden layer. After testing all trained NNs, the correlation coefficient and MSE values for predicting the crack length and location for different numbers of the neurons in each hidden layer have been computed and the results are presented in figure 17 and 18.

Based on the conducted tests results to estimate the effect of number of neurons in each hidden layer, it can be concluded that one hidden layer ANN with 8 neurons is sufficient to estimate the crack length and predict the location of the crack. Therefore, one hidden layer NN with 8 hidden neurons has been used in the next section. The performance of one hidden layer NN with 8 neurons in the hidden layer for the prediction of the crack length and location is illustrated in figure 19.

Fig. 19. The prediction results of the crack length (A) and crack location (B) using FRFs data sets (500 spectral lines)

Fig. 17. The calculated correlation coefficient values to estimate the: (A) crack length and (B) crack location for different ANN arrangements using FRFs data sets (500 spectral lines)

The size of the FRFs data sets obtained from numerical analysis is represented by 500 spectral lines in each measurement. The use of all spectral lines of the FRFs data sets causes long training time (i.e., high computation complexity). In order to avoid large complexity and overfitting, the data reduction technique was used to reduce the size of input data (i.e., FRF spectra). This technique allows to significantly reducing the amount of FRF data. The data reduction technique is applied on the FRF matrix (541x500) to achieve an acceptable data reduction level. The new data sets of FRFs amplitudes are used as input vectors to the FFANN classifiers as an alternative for using the original FRFs data sets.

3.3.6 Testing Number of Spectral Lines of the FRFs Data for Training ANN
In this section, the required number of spectral lines of the FRFs/neurons in the input layer of Model-2 has been investigated. In order to reduce the number of spectral lines of the FRFs/neurons in the input layer to a satisfactory number of neurons, the data reduction mechanism has been implemented. The first data reduction technique is a time consuming task, which attempts to improve the performance by speeding up the training stage, the second data reduction technique have been used, and the results are shown in figure 20.

Fig. 18. The MSE for the estimation results of: (A) crack length and (B) crack location for different ANN arrangements using FRFs data sets (500 spectral lines)

As demonstrated in above figures, the correlation coefficients obtained from testing all trained NNs are more than 0.92 and 0.79 for the prediction of crack length and location, respectively. However, the achieved results showed that two hidden layers NN with 8 neurons in the first hidden layer and 10 neurons in the second hidden layer are sufficient for learning, and they give the best predictions for the crack parameters, where the correlation coefficients are 0.97 and 0.89 for the prediction of the crack length and location, respectively. The corresponding MSE values for estimation of the crack length and location are 19.22 and 21.28, respectively.

Fig. 20. The results due to reducing the spectral lines of the FRFs using the second data reduction technique

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

122

The figure at the right side presents a close view for the last 10 attempts (from 471 to 480) of reducing data of the FRFs data sets. Based on the data reduction technique, different FFANN arrangements have been trained with different input data sets, where the number of input data sets gradually decreases 1 input spectral lines/neuron at each attempt. The calculated correlation coefficients and MSE for the prediction results of FFANN corresponding to each attempt of spectral line reduction are presented in figure 21 and 22 respectively.

amount of variations in the original data and they have been used further on. Therefore, the original FRFs data array of 541x500 is reduced to 541x20. TABLE 4 THE LAST 20 REMAINING SPECTRAL LINES OF THE FRFS DATA

Fig. 21. The correlation coefficients for the estimation results of the crack length and location corresponding to each reduced spectral line of the FRFs data set

Fig. 23. The results of 10 attempts (from 471 to 480) for reducing size of FRFs data sets

The new data sets of FRFs are used as input vectors to the classifier models as an alternative to using the original FRFs data sets. Such truncation of data sets has very little effect on the accuracy of the classifier results but considerably reduces the input data. Figure 24 shows the locations of the remaining 20 spectral lines of the FRFs data sets with amplitude of FRFs that have been obtained from the vibration analyses (541 simulations) of a curvilinear beam with various cracks length and location. The figure shows the amplitudes of FRFs versus the excitation frequencies depending on crack locations and sizes. As indicated in the figure, these locations are in the regions where the graph is highly uniformly changed with change of the crack length and location. Therefore, these spectral lines of the FRFs data are the most important features to identify the cracks.

Fig. 22. The MSE for the estimation results of the crack length and location corresponding to each reduced spectral line of the FRFs data set

The above figures demonstrate that most of the NNs show, relatively, good accuracy for estimation of the crack length and location. However, the accuracy of the crack identification decreased with increase number of reduced spectral lines, mainly after 300 spectral lines, as illustrated in figure 21 and 22. The 10 attempts (from 471 to 480) for reducing input data size is shown in figure 23. The investigations show that the last remaining 20 spectral lines of the FRFs data sets are sufficient to identify the crack in the curvilinear beam. These remaining spectral lines of the FRFs data, as shown in figure 23 are presented in table 4. These 20 spectral lines capture the largest

Fig. 24. The locations of the remaining 20 spectral lines together with all FRFs data sets

In order to determine the best number of neurons in the hidden layer of Model-2, one hidden layer NN with different number of neurons in the hidden layer (from 1 neuron to 40) has been examined. The number of neurons

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

123

in the input layer was fixed to 20 spectral lines of the FRFs/neurons, and also the learning rate and momentum values are set 0.005 and 0.9 respectively. The correlation coefficient and MSE values for the prediction of the crack length and location for testing a trained NN with different numbers of the neurons in the hidden layer have been determined and the results are presented in figure 25 and 26.
Fig. 27. The prediction results of the crack length (A) and crack location (B) using FRFs data sets (20 spectral lines)

Fig. 25. The correlation coefficient values for the prediction results of the crack length and location using FRFs data sets (20 spectral li )

Fig. 26. The MSE for the prediction results of the crack length and location using FRFs data sets (20 spectral lines)

As evident from the obtained results, the correlation coefficient values for all cases are more than 0.95 and 0.83 for the estimation of the crack length and location respectively. The results show that one hidden layer with 5 neurons is sufficient to estimate the crack length and predict the location of the crack, where the correlation coefficients and MSE are (0.98 & 0.90) and (11.27 & 17.52) for the identification of crack length and location respectively. Figure 27 shows the prediction of the crack length and location results by using one hidden layer NN with 5 neurons in the hidden layer. The number of neurons in the input layer is fixed to 20 spectral lines of the FRFs/neurons in the input layer. The test showed that the minimum of MSE could be further reduced by changing the learning rate value to 0.01. The momentum was set 0.9. The testing results reveal that Model-2 can predict the existence of a crack in the curvilinear beam.

After successful training of the classifier models (i.e., Model 1 & 2), a new data sets (54 data sets) of reduced natural frequencies (consist of 3 natural frequencies + 20 amplitudes of FRFs data sets) corresponding to both healthy and damaged beam conditions were selected and fed simultaneously into the classifier models. The results obtained from the tested classifier models (Model 1 & 2) for the prediction of the crack length and location are presented in figure 14 and 27. These figures demonstrate the comparison between the predicted crack length and location using the classifier models versus the existence crack length and location. As evident from the figures, the predicted results are in good agreement with the actual crack parameters. The high value of the correlation coefficients and low values of MSE for the prediction results of the crack parameters indicate the high performance of the adopted ANN models. The sufficient number of neurons in the hidden layer is 6 and 5 for Model-1 and Model-2, respectively. The correlation coefficient values and MSE for NN using natural frequencies are (0.98 & 0.92) and (11.13 & 16.04) and for NN using FRFs are (0.976 & 0.926) and (18.08 & 14.69) for the identification of crack length and location respectively. Based on obtained results one can conclude that by knowing the natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs the trained classifier models are able to adequately predict the crack length and location in the curvilinear beam. The presented results also support the idea that large cracks can be detected more accurately than small cracks, specifically the cracks smaller than 10mm. This can be attributed to the fact that the natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs are fairly not enough to reflect the reasons beside this kind of cracks. The comparison between the predicted results, as shown in figure 14 and 27, indicates that Model-1 is more accurate than Model-2 for the identification of crack length and location. Since, a limited number of samples are used for training of the neural network, so ANN was not so sensitive as compared with some other methods, such as ultrasound, X ray, dye penetrants, magnetic particle and acoustic emission. On the other hand, the implementations of these methods on damage detection are limited [7]. Therefore, ANN can be used as an initial assessment, which can be followed by one of the other methods to determine the crack characteristics more precisely. To provide improved model for the crack identification, the multiple ANN (MNN) model has been proposed.

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

124

3.3.7 Implementation of MNN Using Natural Frequency and FRFs

In this section, instead of training two networks and choosing the best network, Model-1 and Model-2 are combined to produce Model-3. A combined data sets (consist of FRFs, 20 spectral lines and natural frequencies, 3 natural frequencies) are assembled together for training Model-3 to improve the overall estimation error that could be smaller than the individual errors for each individual NN (Model 1 and 2). The multiple ANN was able to learn the relationship between the amplitudes of FRFs and natural frequencies with the corresponding damage state. The convergence has been achieved after 10000 epochs. The number of neurons in the hidden layer is 6 and 5 for 1st ANN and 2nd ANN, respectively. The learning rate and momentum are assumed to be 0.005 and 0.9, respectively, for 1st ANN and 2nd ANN, where the values of the learning rate and momentum are set 0.05 and 0.6 for the 3rd ANN. After successful training of the multiple ANN (Model3), new data sets are fed to the trained FFANN (Model-3). Natural frequencies (3 parameters) and amplitude of FRFs (20 parameters) data were fed simultaneously into 1st ANN and 2nd ANN, respectively. The results obtained from Model-3 are presented in figure 28. The figure shows the scatter plots between the predicted results of Model-3. As displayed in the figure, it can be seen that the crack estimation by the trained Model-3 show good agreement with the existence of the crack length and location.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Fig. 28. Prediction of the crack (A) length and (B) by using natural frequency (3 natural frequencies) and FRFs (20 spectral lines) data sets

The application of FEM to the curvilinear beam showed that the changes in natural frequencies and amplitude of FRFs are sensitive to the crack size and the crack location. FFANN which have single and multiple ANN arrangements have been successfully employed for crack identification in the curvilinear using natural frequencies data sets or FRFs data sets The data reduction techniques have effectively reduced the input data (number of natural frequencies and spectral lines of the FRFs). The results revealed that the pruning mechanism which is based on the data reduction mechanism can led to satisfactory results Results obtained from the neural network model show that a neural network (NN) with proper training is a good mean to estimate the length and location of the crack in the curvilinear beam. The high values of the correlation coefficients and low values of MSE for predicting the crack parameters have shown the accuracy of the ANN models using natural frequencies (Model 1) and amplitudes of FRFs (Model 2). Based on obtained results it can be concluded that, by knowing the natural frequencies and amplitudes of FRFs the trained classifier, models can adequately predict the crack length and location in the curvilinear beam. The comparison between the FFANN predicted results indicates that the FFANN Model-1 is more accurate than Model-2 for the identification of crack length and location in the curvilinear beam. The results show that the multiple ANN (Model3) can improve the precision and can provide better results compared to the single ANN. The correlation coefficient and MSE between the prediction values and actual ones for the crack length and location in the curvilinear beam are (0.99 and 0.98) and (4.13 and 4.62) respectively, which verify the validity of the present method for the crack identification.

The obtained results, as shown in figure 28, reveal that Model-3 demonstrates highly improved performance and the prediction accuracy is more accurate than Model-1 and Model-2. The correlation coefficient between the prediction values and actual values of the crack length and location are 0.99 and 0.98. Additionally, the corresponding MSE to estimate the crack length and location are 4.13 and 4.62, respectively.

REFERENCES
[1] P.F., Rizos, N., Aspragathos, A.D., Dimarogonas, Identification of Crack Location and Magnitude in a Cantilever Beam from the Vibration Modes, Journal of sound and Vibration 138(3): 381-388, 1990. S. Orhan, Analysis of Free and Forced Vibration of a Cracked Cantilever Beam, Journal of Sound and Vibration 40(6): 443-450, 2007. M. Karthikeyan, R., Tiwari, S., Talukdar, Crack Localisation And Sizing in a Beam Based on the Free and Forced Response Measurements, Journal of Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 21(3): 1362-1385, 2007. G., Bamnios, A., Trochides, Dynamic Behaviour of a Cracked Cantilever Beam, Applied Acoustics 45(2): 97-112, 1995. G.M., Owolabi, A.S.J., Swamidas, R., Seshadri, Crack Detection in Beams Using Changes in Frequencies and Amplitudes of Frequency Response Functions, Journal of Sound and Vibration

[2]

[3]

4 CONCLUSIONS
This paper aimed at developing of efficient damage identification technique for the identification of the crack parameters (length and location) in curvilinear beams based on changes in vibration characteristics, using data given from numerical methods. The following conclusions are drawn:
[4] [5]

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

125

[6]

[7]

[8]

265(1): 1-22, 2003. J.V., Arajo dos Santos, C.M., Mota Soares, C.A., Mota Soares, N.M.M. Maia, Structural Damage Identification in Laminated Structures Using FRF Data, Composite Structures 67(2): 239-249, 2005. D., Huynh, J., He, D., Tran, Damage Location Vector: a NonDestructive Structural Damage Detection Technique, Computers and Structures 83(28-30): 2353-2367, 2005. X.F., Yang, A.S.J, Swamidas, R., Seshadri, Crack Identification in Vibrating Beams Using the Energy Method, Journal of Sound and Vibration 244(2): 339-357, 2001. D.P., Patil, S.K., Maiti, Detection of Multiple Cracks Using Frequency Measurements, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 70(12): 1553-1572, 2003. J.T., Kim, N., Stubbs, Crack Detection in Beam-Type Structures Using Frequency Data, Journal of Sound and Vibration 259(1): 145-160, 2003. O.S., Salawu, Detection of Structural Damage through Changes in Frequency: A Review, Engineering Structures 19(9): 718-723, 1997. T., Marwala, H., Hunt, Fault Identification Using Finite Element Models and Neural Networks, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 13(3): 475-490, 1999. M. Karthikeyan, R., Tiwari, S., Talukdar, Crack Localisation And Sizing in a Beam Based on the Free and Forced Response Measurements, Journal of Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 21(3): 1362-1385, 2007. S.W., Liu, J.H., Huang, J.C., Sung, C.C., Lee, Detection of Cracks Using Neural Networks and Computational Mechanics, Computational Methods in Applied Mechanical Engineering 191(25): 2831-2845, 2002. C.B., Yun, E.Y., Bahng, Substructural Identification Using Neural Networks, Computers and Structures 77(1): 41-52, 2000. P. G., Nikolakopoulos, D.E., Katsareas, C.A., Papadopoulos, Crack Identification in Frame Structures, Computers & Structures 64(1-4): 389-406, 1997. J.L., Zapico, M.P., Gonzlez, K., Worden, Damage Assessment Using Neural Networks, Mechanical systems and signal processing 17(1): 119-125, 2003. C., Zang, M., Imregun, Structural Damage Detection Using Artificial Neural Networks and Measured FRF Data Reduced Via Principal Component Projection. Journal of Sound and Vibration 242(5): 813-827, 2001. C., Angelakis, E.N.., Loukis, A.D., Pouliezos, Stavrakakis, G.S. (). Neural Network Based Method for Gas Turbine Blading Fault Diagnosis, International Journal of Modelling and Simulation 21(1): 51-60, 2001. V.L., Jnior, A.E., Turra, Diagnosis of Rotating Systems Using Artificial Neural Networks, Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies, WIT Press. 16, 1996. R. A. Saeed, A. N., Galybin, V., Popov, Crack identification in curvilinear beams by using ANN and ANFIS based on natural frequencies and Frequency Response Functions, Neural Computing & Applications, 2011. R. A. Saeed, A. N., Galybin, Simplified model of the turbine runner blade, Engineering Failure Analysis, 16 (7), 2473-2484, 2009. A., Choubey, D.K., Sehgal, N., Tandon, Finite Element Analysis of Vessels to Study Changes in Natural Frequencies Due to Cracks, International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

83(3): 181-187, 2006. [24] Z., Ahmad, J., Zhang, Bayesian Selective Combination of Multiple Neural Networks for Improving Long Range Predictions in Nonlinear Process Modeling, Neural Computing and Applications 14(1): 78-87, 2005. [25] D.V., Sridhar, E.B., Bartlett, R.C., Seagrave, An Information Theoretic Approach for Combining Neural Network Process Model, Neural Network 12(6): 915-926, 1996. [26] J., Zhang, E. B., Martin, A.J., Morris, C., Kiparissides, Inferential Estimation of Polymer Quality Using Stacked Neural Networks., Computers and Chemical Engineering 21(S): 1025-1030, 1997. [27] C. M., Bishop, Neural Networks for Pattern Recognition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995. [28] Y. Hu, J.N.., Hwang, Handbook of Neural Network Signal Processing, Washington, USA, CRC Press, 2002. [29] J., Maclntyre, J., Tait, S., Kendal, P., Smith, T., Harris, A., Brason, Neural Networks Applications in Condition Monitoring, Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, WIT press. 6: 37-49, 1994. [30] R.J., Kuo, Intelligent Diagnosis for Turbine Blade Faults Using Artificial Neural Network and Fuzzy Logic, Engineering Application of Artificial Intelligence 8(1): 25-34, 1995.

[13]

[14]

[15] [16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22] [23]