Load Recovery in Components Based on Dynamic Strain Measurements

This paper presents a modeling approach for estimating time varying loads acting on a component from experimental strain measurements. The strain response of an elastic vibrating system is written as a linear superposition of strain modes. Since the strain modes, as well as the normal displacement modes, are intrinsic dynamic characteristics of a component, the dynamic loads exciting a component are estimated by measuring induced strain fields. The accuracy of the estimated loads depends on a number of factors, such as the placement locations and orientations of the gauges on the instrumented structure, as well as the number of retained modes from strain modal analysis. A solution procedure based on the construction of D-optimal designs is implemented to determine the optimum locations and orientations of strain gauges such that the variance in load estimates is minimized. A numerical as well as an experimental validation of the proposed approach through two example problems is also presented.