CE5802 Structural Health Monitoring

Dr. Ahmet Turer

Final Exam
06 June 2016
(Due June 06, 2016 @ 23:00)

Q1)
Q2)
Q3)
Q4)
BQ)

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/25
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Please read this text carefully! Please never copy-paste text from internet or other sources as
this is considered plagiarism, another form of cheating. You can use internet sources but write
in your exam papers using your own words and sentences. By signing below, you hereby state
that you will not take any external help, collaborate with anybody in any form, or give any
information at any level that might relate to this class or exam. If any kind of cooperation is
suspected, immediate failure in class and related disciplinary measures are inevitable. Upload
your exams to https://odtuclass.metu.edu.tr/ before the indicated date and time as it will not
be possible to upload later. You are given extra time to take compensate any connection or
internet problems. Not submitted papers (late submissions is not possible) will not be graded.
Also submit your exams in hard-copy format; including all possible attachments by latest
June 7th. Use extra paper if necessary. Put your name, surname, and signature on all pages.
Name Surname, Signature _______________________________________
1. (10 pts) You are using a 24 bit data acquisition system (DAS) and recording 512 samples
per second (sps). If you collect data from 8 channels simultaneously and continuously
record data for a week, how much of a storage space would you need in terms of megabytes?
(Assume that you need 2 bits of additional space per each recorded data for allocation and
8 bits is 1 byte.)

1/5

2. (30 pts) The time vs acceleration (mg) graph is given below and attached electronically for
a 2 degree of freedom (dof) system; therefore, it includes two sinusoidal waves (modes)
superimposed on top of each other.
a) Find out the natural damped frequencies of the two waves using FFT analysis
b) Find the damping ratios of each mode using half power band width method.
c) Using the attached excel sheet, try to fit a curve for the first mode and find out
amplitude of the wave, damping ratio, damped natural frequency (Hz), phase angle,
and DC component. A formula is provided to help you speed up the process, but the
formula might be wrong; please verify and correct if necessary. You may use
Excels optimization toolbox to minimize the error. (Hint: fit a curve to the first
(smaller) frequency, subtract it from the original curve and fit another equation to
the remaining signal. Alternatively, you may try to fit both curves at the same time
but multiple variable optimization might cause problems.
d) Compare your curve fitting results and FFT + half power band width methods for
damping ratios and damped natural frequencies using the comparison table below.
e) REMEMBER to submit your final excel file electronically together with your exam
paper.

Y axis mg; X axis is in seconds.

FFT
curve fitting:

1st mode
damped natural frequencies (Hz)
damping ratios (half power band w)
Amplitude A=
Damping z=
Damped Frequency (Hz) f=
Damped frequency (rad/sec) wd=
Natural undamped frequency (rad/sec) wn=
Phase shift f=
DC component=

2/5

2nd mode

3. (35 pts) Design a load cell using a circular cross section that looks like a pipe for a design
axial load of 400 kN (about 60 tons). The inner diameter is required to be 30 mm. Load cell
will be made of metal that has safe loading of 216 MPa. Consider the height of load cell
about two times the outer diameter and round it off to the nearest cm. The resistive strain
gages will have 120 ohm resistances.
a) Prepare a Wheatstone bridge to maximize the output, to compensate for temperature,
and filter out effects of any accidental bending.
b) Show sketches of your load cell with outer dimension, height, and where you will
put sensors. Draw the wire layout on the load cell showing which cables connect
which terminals of resistive strain gages.
c) Drive the formula to convert voltage output from your loadcell in mV to load in kN.
Calculate the sensitivity value and indicate its unit.

3/5

4. (25 pts) Create a synthetic input signal as a combination of three sinusoidal waves in Excel
using the function y(t)= A1*sin(w1*t) + A2*sin(w2*t) + A3*sin(w3*t). Consider
w1=2**11, w2=2**21, and w3=2**58. Consider A1=4, A2=2, and A3=1. Use time
increments of 1/128 seconds. Generate data for 2048 data points (16 seconds). Using
Excels (or Matlabs) FFT command, convert the data into frequency domain. Properly
construct the x-axis in frequency domain. State if you can obtain peaks for the same
frequencies that you have used to generate the signal. Report any anomalies. Show folding
frequencies using triangles.
Briefly discuss leakage and aliasing errors (you may use internet or books for this
question, but describe leakage and aliasing using your own words). Provide graph outputs
for the exam submission and send your result file electronically.

4/5

(10 pts bonus question) Using the available signal in the previous question (#2), carry out
a wavelet analysis using wavemenu cwt command in MATLAB. Alternatively, you
can directly use command
c = cwt(a,b:c:d,'db4','plot');
where a is your signal in an array, b is the starting scale, c is the increments, d is the largest
scale. e.g.: c = cwt(a,2:2:1000,'db4','plot');
Select an appropriate scaling range (b,c,d values) and discuss your results. Can you identify
both of the modes in your signal? Does one of the signals vanish before the other one? Why?
Modify d value to see if you can identify both of the modes. Provide your cwt graphs as
screen captures. Make sure you attach them to your exam paper inside a Word document
when uploading. Screen captures would be enough; describe peak locations as necessary.

5/5