Analysis concerning changes of structure damping in welded joints diagnostics

Among non-destructive testing methods of welded joints, a vibrodiagnostic method is one of the most promising in applications intended for the continuous monitoring of the structure. The accelerometer-recorded responses provide diagnostic information that requires mathematical processing to extract the essential features typical of the tested welded joints and to evaluate their execution. For this purpose, the proposed method was based on the determination of damping decrement in function of time. Due to the complexity of the responses run, a proposed method consisted of calculating the damping decrement using the response approximation with different functions. It has been shown that the changes analysis of damping decrement applied to welded plates enables the assessment of the quality associated with the weld. Attention was also paid to the elements relevant to the study. This work presents the algorithm and exemplary results obtained from the application of proposed method to several selected sample plates with different type of welds. A scientific apparatus, which purpose was to record dynamic characteristics of welded joints was also described.