Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266

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Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Vibration-based assessment of delaminations in FRP composite plates T

a a a,∗ b
Zhifang Zhang , Mengyue He , Airong Liu , Hemant Kumar Singh ,
Karthik Ram Ramakrishnanc, David Huid, Krishna Shankarb, Evgeny V. Morozovb
a
Guangzhou University-Tamkang University Joint Research Center for Engineering Structure Disaster Prevention and Control, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006,
China
b
School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales, Canberra ACT, 2600, Australia
c
Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Tampere University of Technology, 33720 Tampere, Finland
d
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Orleans, LA 70148, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Delamination is a frequently occurring type of damage in laminated fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites
Delamination detection and causes substantial loss in structural stiffness and usable service life. The detection of delaminations in FRP
Structural health monitoring composites is critical for the safe and reliable use of these materials in aeronautical and other industries.
Natural frequency Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques based on vibration measurements have proven to be promising
Composite plates
towards this end. There have been comprehensive studies of FRP beams with through-width delaminations, but
Genetic algorithm
Artificial neural network
the damage assessment of FRP plates with embedded delaminations using frequency-based detection has not
been extensively studied. To solve the inverse problem of determining size and location of delamination from
changes in the natural frequencies, this paper presents a new surrogate assisted optimisation (SAO) method for
predicting the location and size of delaminations in fibre reinforced composite plates using natural frequency
shifts as indicative parameters. The proposed frequency-based delamination assessment method is validated
using finite element models of FRP plates with embedded delaminations and by experimental modal analysis.
Modal testing was conducted using scanning laser vibrometer on carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy FRP plates that
were manufactured with artificially induced delaminations. The proposed SAO algorithm was compared to an
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method in terms of database size, prediction accuracy and sensitivity to noisy
data. The results show that the proposed inverse algorithm can predict the delamination parameters of location
and size with good accuracy for numerically simulated frequency shift data but the prediction accuracy was
reduced with experimental data. A comparison of the two inverse algorithms show that the SAO method has
significant advantages compared to the ANN algorithm for delamination prediction.

1. Introduction composites as early as possible. Delamination identification methods

The increasing use of FRP laminates in load-bearing structural ap-
plications, especially in the aircraft industry, has necessitated the de-
tection and assessment of the location and severity of damage in the
composites at an early stage [1,2]. Delamination, or the debonding of
adjoining plies, is a commonly occurring damage in laminated com-
posites [3], which is due to the low inter-laminar strengths of the FRP
laminates. Delaminations can occur due to low-velocity impact damage,
manufacturing defects, lightning, and even bird strikes and the com-
pressive residual strength of a delaminated composite can be reduced
by up to 60% [4,5]. Since delamination is an internal damage, it is often
not visible from the outside. However, as it causes severe loss of
structural integrity, it is imperative to detect delaminations in
currently used include Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) techniques
such as visual inspection, ultrasonic testing, radiography and thermo-
graphy [6] and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques such as
fibre Bragg grating [7], acoustic emission [8,9], and Lamb wave- [10],
impedance- and vibration-based methods [11]. The advantage of
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques is that they can
monitor structural integrity on-line, in situ, continuously and without
grounding the aircraft [12]. Vibration-based SHM through monitoring
dynamic response which can be extracted from the composite structures
while in operation is the main focus of the research reported here.
The principle behind vibration-based damage detection techniques
is that damage causes local discontinuities in structural stiffness and/or
variations in damping properties which affect a structure's dynamic

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zfzhang@gzhu.edu.cn (Z. Zhang), 103796@gzhu.edu.cn (M. He), liuar@gzhu.edu.cn (A. Liu), h.singh@adfa.edu.au (H.K. Singh),
karthik.ramakrishnan@tut.fi (K.R. Ramakrishnan), DHui@uno.edu (D. Hui), k.shankar@adfa.edu.au (K. Shankar), e.morozov@adfa.edu.au (E.V. Morozov).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2018.03.003
Received 5 February 2018; Received in revised form 23 February 2018; Accepted 2 March 2018
Available online 03 March 2018
1359-8368/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Zhang et al.
characteristics and modal parameters, namely, natural frequencies,
mode shapes and damping, by monitoring which the damage in a
structure can be identified [13,14]. Vibration-based methods have the
advantage that dynamic parameters can be easily and continuously
extracted from the vibrations of operating machines [15,16]. For ex-
ample, military helicopters such as the MRH90, are fitted with vibra-
tion-based health monitoring systems [17]. There are different vibra-
tion-based methods depending on which modal parameters are
monitored. It has been shown that vibration monitoring through fre-
quency shift does not require data acquisition in more than one location
and measurement of frequencies is more reliable and repeatable than
other modal parameters [18–20].
Many researchers have used artificial neural networks (ANN)
[28–32] or genetic algorithms (GA) [33] to detect the damage from the
shifts in frequencies. Okafor et al. [29] trained a neural network using
the first four frequencies obtained from a theoretical beam model for
predicting size of a delamination in cantilever composite beams. Valoor
and Chandrashekhara [30] trained a back propagation neural network
(BPNN) to predict lengthwise location and size of a delamination by
using the natural frequencies obtained from an analytical thick beam
model. Islam et al. [28] trained a BPNN using the first five modes of
frequencies obtained from modal testing and claimed to have predicted
the axial location and size of delaminations from measured frequencies
with maximum errors of 27% and 10%, respectively. Watkins et al. [34]
trained a feed-forward BPNN using the first five modal frequencies as
inputs to predict the lengthwise locations and sizes of delaminations in
beams. Krawczuk and Ostachowicz [35] identified delaminations in
composite beams using a GA by minimising an error function which
expressed the discrepancy between its measured and theoretical fre-
quencies and demonstrated that the GA could predict the delamination
location and magnitude at high levels of accuracy and speed via
changes in natural frequencies. Ostachowicz et al. [36] applied a si-
milar method to detect the addition of a concentrated mass in a rec-
tangular composite plate using the first four measured natural fre-
quencies. Nag et al. [37] identified delaminations in composite beams
using a combination of spectral estimation and a GA, with a spectral
FEM consisting of a damaged spectral element used to predict the
structural response of the damaged composite in the frequency domain.
However, these studies assumed a single delamination in the mid-plane
and only estimated the lengthwise location and size of the delamina-
tion. Su et al. [33] investigated GA and ANN for quantitative damage
identification by using a theoretical model proposed by Mujumdar et al.
[38] to generate frequency shift data for training the ANN and the
measured frequencies obtained from embedded fibre Bragg grating
sensors for validation. Based on numerical and experimental valida-
tions, both the GA and ANN were reported to provide quantitative
evaluations of the location, size and interlaminar position of delami-
nation.
The principle of the frequency based method is that the presence of
a delamination changes the local stiffness which causes a shift in the
natural frequencies and that depending on the size and location of the
delamination, different modes will be affected differently. The presence
of damage can be predicted by an appreciable permanent decrease in
the values of the structural natural frequencies [21]. However, the
determination of the location and the severity of the damage based on
these frequency shifts is not straightforward. Montalvao et al. [13] re-
ported that methods based on frequency shifts often fall into one of the
two categories: the forward and the inverse problem. The forward
problem consists in determining the natural frequency changes due to a
known damage case while the inverse problem consists of determining
damage parameters, such as crack length or location, from changes in
the natural frequencies. The full assessment of the damage requires
solution to the inverse problem, i.e. determination of the location and
size of damage using measured frequency shifts in multiple modes. The
highly non-linear nature of the relationship between the vibration re-
sponses and the damage parameters makes the inverse problem difficult
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Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266
to solve, often requiring sophisticated algorithms [22]. In general, the
inverse problem can be solved in two ways: by direct non-linear map-
ping from the frequency shifts to delamination parameters; or viewing
it as a minimisation problem in which the frequency shifts are itera-
tively generated from the forward models with updated delamination
parameters until the predicted values achieve minimum differences
from the targeted frequency shifts. The direct mapping can be realised
using approximation techniques such as Artificial Neural Networks
(ANNs) which are computational systems which mimic the micro-
structures (neurons) of biological nervous systems. The key advantage
of an ANN is its ability to model complex non-linear, multi-dimensional
functional relationships without any prior assumptions about their
natures. Its capability to detect failures and damage in structures has
been comprehensively reported [23–26]. The minimisation problem
needs to resort to optimisation techniques, such as the least square al-
gorithm, genetic algorithms, gradient-based local search, etc. Genetic
algorithms, also more generally referred to as evolutionary algorithms
are a population-based stochastic algorithm [27]. It falls in a class of
methods known as metaheuristics and operates directly on the input
vectors and output objective function(s). Consequently, it does not re-
quire features such as continuity, linearity, differentiability, etc. and
can even operate on black-box functions; making it applicable to a wide
range of problems.
It should be noted that research presented above were for assess-
ment of delaminations in composite beams using frequency-based
methods and ANN or GA as inverse algorithms. There is considerably
less literature on delamination detection in composite plates. A possible
reason for this research gap is the increased complexity of the inverse
algorithms in the case of a composite plate (more parameters of dela-
mination compared to only three in a beam). For instance, certain
methods such as the graphical technique [11] are not applicable in the
case of plate. The embedded delamination covers much less area over
the whole plate surface than that of beam with through-width dela-
mination adding to the complexity. It should also be noted that a major
portion of work on FRP beams have used theoretical beam models such
as Majumdar's [38] or Tracy's theory [39] for generating the database
to be input in the inverse algorithms. However, theoretical models for
vibration of delaminated plates are not yet available. There is no handy
and efficient way to create the needed dynamic response database for
applying the damage detection technique in FRP plates except to use
Finite Element Models (FEMs) but they require significant computation
time.
Some attempts have been made to detect delamination in composite
plates using different techniques. For a rectangular delamination in the
composite plates, there are five parameters to define such damage,
namely interface, in-plane locations in the two directions, the lengths of
the two different sides of the rectangular. Chen et al. [40] and Kim [41]
developed an approach that combined GA and ANN techniques for
delamination detection in composite plates. A BPNN with five inputs
corresponding to the five delamination parameters in plate, and ten
outputs corresponding to the first ten natural frequencies was trained
from 1440 data sets generated from FE models. The well-trained net-
work had architecture of 5-80-80-10 and was used as an approximation
of the numerical model to quickly determine the natural frequencies of
the delaminated plates. The results showed that the detected delami-
nation size and location are in general unsatisfactory. It was hypothe-
sised that it might be because there is a discrete parameter-interface.
Therefore, instead of using a single BPNN, Kim [41] tried to improve
the approximation accuracy by building four module neural networks,
each corresponding to one interface, with the other four continuous
damage parameters as inputs. Chakraborty [42] trained a BPNN with
three layers (input, hidden and output) and the first ten modal fre-
quencies generated from hundreds of FEMs of square composite plates
with different sizes and eccentricities of elliptic delaminations, and
locations of delaminations. It was observed that the network could ef-
fectively learn and reasonably predict the delamination parameters
Z. Zhang et al.
when tested using unknown data sets.
In summary, there have been a few attempts to extend the vibration-
based methods to detect and assess the delamination damage in FRP
composite plates in current literature. However, these studies have
shown some limitations either in the assumptions used in the model or
lack of experimental validation and sensitivity analysis of the proposed
optimisation methods [43]. Therefore, convincing conclusions on the
feasibility, expected accuracy and possible shortcomings of this detec-
tion technique have not been established, leaving a substantial scope
for further work on the topic.
In an attempt towards addressing some of the above gaps, a fre-
quency-based detection method using Surrogate-assisted Genetic
Algorithm for assessing delamination parameters of FRP plates is in-
vestigated in this paper. GA is an iterative process where a population is
evolved over several generations, it inherently requires a large number
of function evaluations to converge near the optimum, which makes it
impractical to use for problems where these evaluations are computa-
tionally expensive and time consuming (such as FEM in the case studied
here). Therefore, in order to reduce the runtime, additional mechanisms
are required. A complementary approach is to use Surrogate-assisted
Optimisation (SAO). Surrogate models, also referred to metamodels or
approximation models build an approximation of the computationally
expensive FEM analysis and use the predicted values from it to guide
the search. Since an approximate model is used instead of the true
function evaluation, this process saves significant time. Various types of
surrogate models are available in the literature, such as response sur-
face methods (RSM), ANNs, Kriging, support vector machines, etc. [44].
ANNs have been used by a number of previous researchers as surrogates
[40,41,45] due to their ability to deal with non-linear functions. In this
study, we adopt ANN as an approximation model to fit the data sets of
the frequency shifts versus delamination parameters predicted using the
FE simulation. The ANN as the surrogate model develops neural net-
works for the forward problem, i.e., relates the delamination para-
meters as inputs and the frequency shifts as outputs. SAO techniques
have not yet been extensively applied in delamination detection. The
developed Surrogate-assisted GA method is compared to a traditional
ANN based delamination detection method.
More specifically, the key intended contributions of this study in-
clude:
(1) In contrast to the comprehensive research on FRP beams, this paper
focuses on the rarely reported vibration-based detection of dela-
mination in FRP plates, with both numerical and experimental va-
lidation of such proposed technique; the delamination interface
which is either simply ignored or is predicted as continuous number
in most related literature was herein tried to be predicted as dis-
crete variable in GA;
(2) The number of datasets in such “delamination parameters vs. fre-
quency shift” database which were used to feed the inverse algo-
rithms are analysed to achieve balance between database genera-
tion time and prediction accuracy;
(3) To solve the time-consuming GA with an in-loop FE model, a fast
surrogate model is used to approximate the FEM and thus sub-
stantially improving the runtime of optimisation.
(4) A sensitivity analysis is conducted for analysing the impact of noise
on the prediction accuracy of those inverses algorithms.
2. Algorithms for frequency-based assessment
2.1. Description of inverse problem
The principle of the frequency based method is that the presence of
a delamination causes a shift in the natural frequencies and that dela-
minations of different sizes and/or location will cause different changes
in the different modes. A schematic diagram of a rectangular delami-
nation in a composite plate is shown in Fig. 1. To characterise this
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Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266
Fig. 1. Dimensions and delamination parameters of composite plate.
delamination, the damage location is identified in terms of the x and y
coordinates for the in-plane location of its mid-point, and z for the in-
terface location, and its severity are defined in terms of the planar size
of the delamination, a and b, parallel to the length and width of the
plate, respectively.
The changes in natural frequencies caused by delamination can be
expressed as a function of the delamination parameters by Eqn. (1) for a
plate.
Δωi = fi (a, b, x , y, z ) (1)
where Δωi the percentage shift in frequency in the ith mode given by
ωui − ωdi
Δωi = × 100
ωui (2)
where ωui and ωdi are the ith mode frequency of the undelaminated and
delaminated FRP panel, respectively.
The inverse problem consists of determining the delamination
parameters from the known (or measured) frequency shifts. There are
five parameters to be determined by the inverse algorithms to assess
delamination in a plate and it should be noted that, as delamination can
only occur at the interfaces between composite layers, the z co-ordinate
for the interface is a discrete variable while all the other parameters are
continuous. In principle, if at least as many equations as the number of
unknowns are available, i.e., a minimum of five for delamination in a
plate, the required numbers of Eqn. (1) could be solved simultaneously
to determine the delamination parameters. However, the relationships
between frequency shifts and delamination parameters are not explicit
functions; the solution requires numerical evaluations of the Eigen
values of the system matrices for both pristine and delaminated plates.
Thus, as the fi functions are, in general, unknown and highly non-linear
in nature, direct inverse solutions to Eqn. (1) for frequency shifts are not
possible. However, it is possible to obtain values of the frequency shifts
for more modes than the minimum five required and the delamination
parameters can be estimated in an overdetermined system of relation-
ships.
2.2. Genetic algorithms and surrogate-assisted optimisation
2.2.1. Defining the optimisation problem
The first evident step in applying an optimisation technique is to
correctly define the objective function for the specific problem in the
form of minimisation or maximisation. Generally, an optimisation
problem requires definition of its design variables, objectives and
constraints. During the optimisation process, the values of the design
variables are intelligently and systematically varied to search for the
design that has the best performance while satisfying the constraints. In
the present problem of delamination assessment, the design variables,
as can be expected, are the parameters of delamination and the objec-
tive function to be minimised is defined as
Z. Zhang et al. Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266

obj = (Δωt1 − Δω p1)2 +…+(Δωtn − Δω pn)2 (3)

where Δωtn is the nth target frequency shift obtained from either
measurements (experimental validation) or FE test cases (numerical
validation) while Δω pn is the nth frequency shift predicted from the
numerical models. In other words, GA will attempt to minimize the
norm of the discrepancies between the ‘measured’ and ‘numerically
predicted’ frequency shifts.
For composite plates, the following four constraints are placed so
that the predicted delamination locations and sizes located within the
plate (Fig. 1).
x a
− >0
L 2L (4)

y b
− >0
W 2W (5)

x a
1−⎛ + ⎞ >0
⎝L 2L ⎠ (6)
Fig. 2. Convergence of objective values with increases in number of generations.
y b ⎞
1−⎛ + >0
⎝W 2W ⎠ (7) Table 1
Parameters for GA.
In addition to the objective function and the constraints, GA re-
quires its own parameters such as population size, number of genera- Parameter Values
tions and mutation/crossover probabilities to be set. The procedure
Population 200
begins by selecting an initial random “population” (of delamination
Generations 100
parameters) from the entire range of possible solutions within the Crossover probability 0.9
search space. The population size depends on the nature and size of the Mutation probability 0.1
problem but, typically, contains several hundreds of possible solutions. Distribution index for crossover 10
The algorithm then evaluates the individuals in the selected population Distribution index for mutation 10

on the basis of an objective function (in this case the norm of the dif-
ferences between the measured and estimated frequency shifts) and
2.2.2. Surrogate-assisted GA
constraints (if there are any – in this case the geometric constraints),
Surrogate models can be used to build an approximation of the
and calculates the fitness of each individual. The individuals with
computationally expensive FEM analysis [1]. An ANN based approx-
higher fitness have a greater chance of being selected to survive in the
imation model was chosen as a surrogate for the GA inverse algorithm
next generation and subsequently to produce further offspring.
to reduce the computation time. It is possible to use a single ANN model
Furthermore, unlike conventional gradient-based methods, GA is not
with the five delamination parameters (x, y, z, a and b) as inputs and the
limited to dealing with continuous variables alone, and can be con-
first 12 frequency shifts as output or to use 12 ANN models, each ap-
veniently customized to deal with mixed variables, as is the case in the
proximating the frequency shift of a single mode from the five input
current study. While the termination criterion is not met, a new gen-
parameters. It was found that the latter approach performed better in
eration of offspring is generated through the use of genetic/mathema-
terms of training times and network performance and therefore this
tical operators. To produce the offspring solutions, ‘parent’ solutions are
approach of individually approximating each mode was chosen. The
selected for recombination. The genetic operators, crossover and mu-
final ANN architecture for assessment of delamination in composite
tation, are then applied on these parents to generate the offspring so-
plates, after trial and error, is selected as 5-20-20-1 for each of the 12
lutions. The frequency shifts for the offspring population are estimated
ANNs is shown in Fig. 3.
using FE modelling and compared with the measured frequency shifts
After the surrogate model is constructed, it is ready to be combined
to evaluate the objective functions. Then, the parent and offspring so-
with the optimizer (GA described above) to conduct a SAO procedure in
lutions are combined in a pool, ranked based on their fitness, and only
which it replaces the FEM. The fully constrained FE model takes about
the top P solutions (where P is the population size) are retained for the
1 min (on a 3.00 GHz PC with 2CPUs and 4 GB of RAM) to run each
next generation. The process is repeated until a termination condition is
analysis, thus it takes about 14 days to complete the 20,000 analyses
reached, for instance, the pre-defined number of generations is com-
required for 100 generations with a population of 200. In contrast, the
pleted or the objective function within a specified tolerance is achieved.
surrogate model created with the database provides predictions for
The progression of the best found objective value with the genera-
frequency shifts at a much faster rate, and each optimisation run could
tion was plotted and shown in Fig. 2 after a GA was run on the problem
be completed in merely 10–15 min. The Matlab codes used for surro-
discussed above with a sample dataset. As can be seen, the objective
gate-assisted GA framework were developed by the Multidisciplinary
function converges in approximately 20 generations, and the changes
Design Optimisation Group at The UNSW, Canberra [46].
thereafter are rather negligible. Therefore a conservative limit of 100
generations has been used for GA herein, deemed to be sufficient to
solve the problem at hand. For the crossover probability, it is re- 2.3. Artificial neural network
commended to use a large value (close to 1), such as 0.9, while for the
mutation probability, a small value is suggested, such as 0.1 (or some The SAO algorithm was compared to an Artificial Neural Network
studies 1/n) [27]. The distribution index for crossover and mutation are algorithm to solve the inverse problem of estimation of delamination
used to control the probability distributions while dealing with con- parameters from frequency shifts. A schematic structure of the ANN
tinuous variables, and have been set to 10 in this study. The parameters used for delamination detection in the FRP plates is shown in Fig. 4. The
used in this study are given in Table 1. ANN consists of N inputs (N ≥ 5, corresponding to N measured

257
Z. Zhang et al.
Fig. 3. Architecture of ANN surrogate model with five delamination parameters as inputs
and single frequency shift as output (repeated for each mode).
Fig. 4. ANN for detecting delamination in plates.
frequency shifts) and five outputs (corresponding to the five parameters
of delamination in the plate). It should be noted that the structure of the
ANN for solving the inverse problem is different to the ANN used as a
surrogate model. In this study, feed-forward back-propagation neural
networks (BPNNs) were configured and trained using the Matlab Neural
Network Toolbox. A feed-forward BPNN is named because of the way it
learns - by back-propagating the errors seen at the output nodes. Its
training involves three stages: (1) feed forward of the input training
pattern; (2) calculation and back propagation of the associated error,
and (3) adjustment of the weights. A database of frequency changes
obtained from FE model of delaminated plates is used to train the ANN.
As there is no established rule for choosing the optimal number of
hidden layers and neurons for each layer [30], they are decided through
preliminary experiments, with the mean square error (MSE) used as
ANN's performance indicator.
It is sufficient for the ANN to assess three unknown variables of
delamination (interface, lengthwise location and size) for FRP beams
but solution of the delamination problem of composite plates requires
five delamination parameters. Therefore, the ANN requires a higher
number of inputs (modal frequency shifts) up to 12 modes, to cater for
the increased number of output variables for better prediction accuracy.
Bayesian regulation and early stopping of training were opted to reduce
the chance of over-fitting, a scenario where the model becomes too
specialized for the given dataset, deteriorating its ability to generalize
258
Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266
well to other unknown points.
3. Database generation using finite element modelling
The implementation of the inverse algorithms requires a database of
frequency shifts caused by delamination with known parameters. The
size of the database (a large number of datasets, “delamination para-
meters vs. frequency shifts”) employed for training ANN, thus, plays a
critical role in determining the accuracy of, and time required by, the
algorithms to determine the possible delamination parameters. Since an
analytical expression for vibration of delaminated plate is not yet
available, the database is generated using finite element models
(FEMs). Therefore, a detailed description of the FRP plate models with
and without delaminations developed using finite element analysis
(FEA) software is provided in this section.
3.1. Finite element modelling
Three dimensional (3D) finite element modelling of undamaged and
delaminated FRP plates was performed using the commercial software
ANSYS12.1. The element type used is layered SOLID185, an eight-node
layered structural solid element with three degrees of freedom at each
node. ANSYS 12.1 provides a section builder to assist in the definition
and management of a composite layup, that is, a shell section in which a
regular layup is defined on a ply-by-ply basis, with the input for each
ply including ply thickness, material ID, fibre orientation, and number
of integration points through it. Before meshing the solid model, the
shell section should be attributed to the layered SOLID185 elements. A
mesh sensitivity study was conducted to determine the optimum
number of elements to be employed for the plate FE models to achieve
the balance between model accuracy and computational time.
A commonly adopted assumption to model delamination in the lit-
erature is called the ‘free mode’ model in which the nodes in the de-
laminated section are left without setting any constraints or couplings.
However, this assumption will cause inter-penetration of nodes in cer-
tain modes, which is not physically possible [47–50]. To avoid the
penetration, a “constrained mode” model, which has added contact in
the delaminated region to have the same flexural displacement, was
employed. A pair of contact elements, TARGE170/CONTAC173, were
added between the mating surfaces of the delaminated area, thus it
allows neither penetration nor separation between the sub-laminates.
Eigen value modal analysis was conducted to extract first 20 natural
frequencies using the Block Lanczos method of undamaged plate and
modes of rigid body motion and in-plane bending modes were dis-
carded. The FE models of the composite plates are validated by com-
parison to experimental modal analysis.
3.2. Determination of database size
The database was created by running a large number of composite
plate models with delaminations of different sizes and locations. It is
important to determine a proper size of the database so that it is big
enough to predict damage with good accuracy and meanwhile is rea-
sonably small to save computational time. The influence of database
size on prediction accuracy was investigated to select appropriate size.
Three different databases were studied, with the ranges and increments
of the normalised x location (x/L), y location (y/W), x dimension of
delamination (a/L) and y dimension of delamination (b/W) are listed in
Table 2. The total numbers of data sets are 432, 1008 and 4032, re-
spectively, for databases #P1, #P2 and #P3 (‘P’ indicates plate). As can
be seen, for #P1 and #P2, the data points of the sizes (either a/L or b/
W) are the same, but the data points of the delamination locations are
increased. The reason to design database #P2 in this way is because the
frequency shifts monotonously increase with the size, and to reduce the
number of different sizes in database is expected to have less effect on
the prediction accuracy. For the database #P3, both of the data sets of
Z. Zhang et al.
Table 2
Databases trialled for inverse algorithms for delaminated plates.
Database #P1 Database #P2 Database #P3
Interface 1:4 1:4 1:4
x/L 0.2:0.2:0.8 0.2:0.1:0.8 0.2:0.1:0.8
y/W 0.267:0.267:0.667 0.267:0.133:0.667 0.267:0.133:0.667
a/L 0.15:0.1:0.35 0.15:0.1:0.35 0.1:0.05:0.35
b/W 0.2:0.133:0.467 0.2:0.133:0.467 0.133:0.067:0.467
No. of data sets 432 1008 4032
varied delamination locations and sizes are increased compared to #P1.
3.3. Numerical validation of inverse algorithms
The inverse algorithms described in Section 2.2 are validated using
numerical test cases having the same geometric and delamination
characteristics as those of the physical specimens tested in this study
(see Section 4 for the reference). Since these numerical test cases are
produced from FE models similar to those used to create the training
databases, their solutions are actually points that will lie within the
same spaces and on the same surfaces as the domain of data on which
the search is carried out. Therefore, if the inverse algorithms are cor-
rectly implemented and perform as expected, it should not be difficult
to arrive at the correct solutions. However, as the two techniques in-
volve models or networked relationships developed with the data
provided, their accuracy and usefulness depend on the sizes of the data
sets as well as the training and approximations employed. Therefore, it
is necessary to first validate the inverse algorithms with (nearly perfect)
data from numerical simulations. The inverse algorithms validated with
simulated data can be used later for assessing delaminations with
measured frequency shifts.
4. Experimental modal analysis of composite plates
4.1. Fabrication of composite plates with simulated delaminations
In order to verify the finite element models and validate the pro-
posed inverse algorithms for predicting delamination parameters,
carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced epoxy
(GFRP) plates with embedded delaminations were manufactured. The
CFRP plates were fabricated with MTM57/PANEX35 prepreg tapes and
the GFRP plates with MTM57/E-glass prepreg tapes. The cut sheets
were stacked together in the sequence of [0/45/-45/90]s and double
layers of 25 μm thick Teflon release films cut into appropriate sizes
were embedded at predetermined locations to simulate delaminations
in the specimens. The prepregs were cured in an autoclave at 6.2 bars
pressure at 120 °C for 1 h. The cured graphite epoxy plates had a
nominal thickness of 2.561 mm and the glass epoxy plates a nominal
thickness of 2.105 mm. After curing, each of these laminate plates was
cut into four plates (nominal dimensions of 130 mm × 92 mm), one
control plate (#1) without any delaminations and three plates with
delaminations. All the embedded delaminations were 40 mm × 40 mm,
occupying about 13% of the area of plates. The locations of the dela-
minations in the CFRP and GFRP plates are shown to scale schemati-
cally in Fig. 5. The delaminations in the CFRP plates are all located at
the same in-plane location (x/L = 0.85 and y/W = 0.5), but at different
interface locations, interface 4 (magenta), interface 3 (green) and in-
terface 2 (blue) in CFRP plates 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Those edge
delaminations were separated thoroughly using thin steel sheet. The
delaminations in the GFRP plates (#2-#4) are all located at interface 4,
the mid-plane (indicated by magenta), but at different in-plane loca-
tions, viz, at x/L, y/W values of (0.85, 0.5), (0.35, 0.233), and (0.45,
0.5) respectively for GFRP 2, 3 and 4.
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4.2. Vibration testing of plate specimens
The experimental modal analysis was conducted using a Polytec
PSV-400 non-contact scanning laser Doppler vibrometer with the
Polytec software PSV8.7 used to extract the frequencies and mode
shapes. Two boundary conditions were applied on the plate specimens,
(1) both CFRP and GFRP plates were tested under clamped-free-free-
free (CFFF) boundary conditions by clamping their shorter edge
without delamination with the clamping screws tightened to the same
consistency (30Nm) using a torque wrench and not restraining the other
three sides; (2) the plate specimens were hung by cotton strings from a
steel frame to simulate all edges free (FFFF) boundary. The measure-
ment area of each plate was set into a grid of 13 × 9 to provide 117
measurement points, with the responses at each point averaged 15
times to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. A frequency range of
0–3200 Hz was employed from which 6400 lines were selected for the
FFT grid, which provided a resolution of 0.5 Hz. Excitation was pro-
vided by a shaker for CFFF plates (Fig. 6(a)) and for FFFF plates, by a
loudspeaker behind the plate with a sweep signal from 1 Hz to 5000 Hz
in 0.5 s. Fig. 6(b) shows the first four measured mode shapes of the
CFFF plate identified by comparing the mode shapes from the PSV
software with those outputs from the FE model of the composite plates
under the same boundary conditions.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Results of the FE model
The validation of the FE model was conducted by comparison of the
first 9 natural frequencies obtained from the experiment and FE models
for undamaged composite plates under CFFF and FFFF boundary con-
ditions. Fig. 7 (a) and (b) show the comparison of the measured fre-
quencies with those predicted by the FE simulation for the undamaged
CFRP plate #1 and GFRP plate #1, respectively, under the FFFF
boundary condition. As can be seen, the undamaged GFRP #1 had some
modes which were not recognised in the experimental modal analysis
but, generally, the errors were less than 3%, except for mode 9 which
had an error of 6.2%. In comparison, the undamaged CFRP #1 had a
better match than GFRP#1 between the FE models and experiment,
with average errors of all nine modes 0.96% for CFRP#1 plate and 2.1%
for GFRP#1.
A similar comparison between the frequencies predicted by the fi-
nite element simulation and those from the experiment for CFFF plates
is shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen that good match was achieved, with
the maximum discrepancies of only 4.5% for the GFRP #1 and less than
3.2% for the undamaged CFRP #1.
The discrepancies between FE and measurement may be attributed
to: (a) uncertainties and errors in frequency measurements, (b) differ-
ences between the actual material properties of the plate specimens and
those employed in the FE model, (c) the assumption of uniform thick-
ness in the FE simulations may not be true for the real specimen, (d) the
inability to reproduce in the experiments the ideal boundary conditions
in the numerical simulation. However, despite these limitations, the
finite element model was able to estimate the natural frequencies with
mean error less than 5%, suggesting that the modelling approach is
robust.
5.2. Results of database size selection for SAO
Eight test cases of plates with delaminations covering arbitrary lo-
cations and sizes (minimum 3.33% and up to 14% of the whole plate
area) are generated using FEA and the frequency shifts fed into the SAO
and ANN to predict the delamination parameters using these three
databases to evaluate the effect of each database on prediction accu-
racy. Fig. 9 (a) to (c) compares the actual (rectangular shape of solid
lines) and predicted (rectangular shape of dashed lines) delamination
Z. Zhang et al. Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266

Fig. 5. Delamination locations in test specimens: (a) CFRP plates and (b) GFRP plates.

Fig. 6. Set-up for (a) CFFF (CFRP #1 plate) boundary condition, and (b) experimental mode shapes of first four modes of CFFF plate.

parameters for Databases #P1, #P2 and #P3, respectively, with the predictions using the database with only 432 data sets (Fig. 9 (c)) have
interfaces colour-coded for identification: red for interface1 (outer- larger errors (for instance, case 4 has prediction errors of 31.6% for
most), green for interface 2, blue for interface 3 and magenta for in- locations and 16.1% for dimensions) while the discrepancies are much
terface 4 (mid-plane of the eight-layer FRP plate). As can be seen, smaller and almost the same for data sets of 1008 and 4032 (in all the

Fig. 7. Comparisons of frequencies from experiment and FE models for undamaged FFFF plates: (a) CFRP#1; (b) GFRP#1.

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Fig. 8. Comparisons of frequencies from experiment and FE models for undamaged CFFF plates: (a) CFRP#1; (b) GFRP#1.
eight test cases, the solid and dashed rectangular are partly or even
almost fully overlapped indicating satisfactory prediction accuracy).
The relatively poor prediction using Database #P1 is because only
432 data sets are not enough to train the surrogate ANN model to
achieve stable and accurate prediction of frequency shifts. With a closer
look to the cases with low accuracy in Fig. 9 (a), for instance Cases 1, it
can be noticed that the size was predicted with satisfactory accuracy,
but the in-plane locations, in particular the y-location, were badly
predicted leading to a similar size of predicted delamination shifted to
the up and right to the actual one. This example illustrates the database
size effect on the prediction accuracy. As can be seen in Table 3 for the
generation of Database #P1, there are only 4 and 3 data points along x-
location and y-location, respectively, while there are 7 and 4 points
along x-location and y-location for both Databases #P2 and #P3. By
remembering that unlike the frequency shifts monotonously increase
Fig. 9. Actual and predicted delaminations (from SAO) in composite plates using (a) Database #P1 - 432 data sets, (b) Database #P2 - 1008 data sets and (c) Database #P3 - 4032 data
sets.
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with the size, the relation between frequency shifts and in-plane loca-
tions are much more complex, if having no determined trend. So, this
requires to have more data points of varied x-location and y-location in
database to capture the complicated relation between frequency shifts
and in-plane locations. In contrast, reduced number of the points for
sizes is acceptable in database generation since it has relatively minor
influence in prediction accuracy (Databases #P2 and #P3 have same
number of points along x- and y-locations, but the latter has more
number of varied size a and b and thus the more data points in the
whole database, however, both can achieve satisfactory prediction). It
may be noted that for certain cases, for instance Cases 1 and 2, the
prediction accuracy using Database #P3 is even lower than using #P2.
Possible reasons for this discrepancy could be over-fitting or perfor-
mance of training methods used within the Matlab function, which
needs further investigation. Therefore, considering the balance between
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Table 3
Actual and predicted delaminations (using ANN) in composite plates using Databases #P1, #P2 and #P3

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8

Actual Interface 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4
x/L (%) 70.0 25.0 35.0 45.0 55.0 65.0 40.0 75.0
y/W (%) 33.3 46.7 60.0 40.0 53.3 43.3 66.7 56.7
a/L (%) 15.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 10.0 35.0 25.0 30.0
b/W (%) 26.7 46.7 20.0 40.0 33.3 40.0 46.7 26.7
Predicted Interface 1 1 3 2 2 3 2 4
(Database #P1) x/L (%) 51.8 85.4 −1.2 65.6 67.2 61.2 38.7 75.0
y/W (%) 75.1 138.8 78.9 66.1 43.8 47.8 66.6 58.0
a/L (%) 3.3 74.5 23.5 33.7 24.3 41.8 25.7 31.5
b/W (%) 29.5 −22.6 −11.2 38.4 14.8 32.0 46.2 32.6
a
AVG 18.6 66.6 22.0 15.5 13.6 5.8 0.7 2.2
Predicted Interface 1 1 2 3 3 3 2 3
(Database #P2) x/L (%) 65.3 27.6 37.6 52.9 49.2 60.7 37.3 73.7
y/W (%) 39.8 39.5 62.7 54.9 43.0 44.3 74.7 58.2
a/L (%) 14.8 46.9 35.6 22.9 18.8 40.1 30.5 30.8
b/W (%) 24.4 30.4 16.7 39.7 26.5 34.6 43.8 26.0
AVG 3.4 10.7 4.8 6.5 7.9 4.0 4.8 1.0
Predicted Interface 1 3 2 3 3 3 2 3
(Database #P3) x/L (%) 69.4 23.2 36.7 49.3 48.5 62.6 36.9 74.4
y/W (%) 34.9 42.3 67.9 45.0 39.2 39.0 67.3 52.7
a/L (%) 15.1 29.5 27.6 26.1 5.8 26.9 28.0 30.6
b/W (%) 30.2 42.5 25.5 32.6 38.8 43.8 45.9 27.0
AVG 1.4 2.7 4.4 5.7 7.6 4.7 1.9 1.4

a
AVG: the average of absolute prediction errors (%) of the four continuous delamination parameters, x/L, y/W, a/L and b/W.

computational time and accuracy, Database #P2 (1008 data sets) is
selected for the SAO algorithm for assessing delaminations in plates.
5.3. Results of database size selection for ANN
The input and output parameters are different for the SAO and ANN
algorithm and consequently, the database size #P2 cannot directly be
deemed as the best for ANN. Therefore, the proper database size was
evaluated for using ANN as inverse algorithm to assess delamination in
FRP plate as well. The actual and predicted delamination parameters
and average of absolute values of errors in predictions of the location
parameters (x/L and y/W) and delamination dimensions (a/L and b/W)
using the ANN are listed in Table 3 for the three databases. Ad-
ditionally, an average of absolute prediction errors (%) of the four
continuous delamination parameters, x/L, y/W, a/L and b/W was also
evaluated. It can be seen that, predictions using the two larger data-
bases are reasonable although Database #P2 has relatively larger errors
(up to 14.9% for locations and 16.9% for dimensions) than Database
#P3 (up to 14.1% for locations and 8.1% for dimensions). Furthermore,
those using Database #P1 with 432 data sets are very poor, with several
negative delamination parameter values (in Cases 2 and 3) which are
not feasible. Therefore, Database #P3 with 4032 data sets is re-
commended to be selected for delamination predictions for plates using
the ANN.
A comparison of the performance of SAO and ANN for delamination
assessments is given in Table 4. It can be seen that for the same data-
base size, comparing the average prediction errors of the four con-
tinuous delamination parameters (x/L, y/W, a/L and b/W), it is ob-
served that SAO is more accurate than the ANN in predicting the
location and size parameters. SAO also achieves higher precision of
interface prediction than the ANN. Additionally, it was observed that
the SAO technique is less sensitive to database size than ANN, since for
the smallest database with only 432 data points, SAO can still work to
give acceptable prediction while ANN gives some infeasible predictions.
5.4. Validation of inverse algorithms using simulated frequency shifts
The shifts in natural frequencies caused by delaminations were
determined using Eqn. (2) in which those of undamaged and delami-
nated plates were obtained by modelling them in ANSYS using the same
dimensions as those of the experimental FRP specimens. The frequency
shifts obtained from the numerical simulation were input into the SAO
and ANN to estimate the delamination parameters for both the CFFF
and FFFF boundary conditions. Predictions of delaminations in the
composite plates using the frequency shifts in the cantilever (CFFF)
boundary conditions for the three delaminated carbon/epoxy plates
(CFRP#2 - #4, CFRP#1 being intact) and three glass/epoxy plates
(GFRP#2 - #4) using SAO and ANN are shown schematically in Fig. 10
(a) and (b), respectively, with the delamination sizes and locations
being scaled relative to the plate's dimensions. The rectangles with bold
solid edges indicate the actual delaminations and those with edges in
thin and dashed lines the predicted ones. The assessed and actual in-
terface locations of delaminations are colour-coded as red, blue, green
and magenta for interfaces 1 (outermost) to 4 (mid-plane), respectively.
The predicted delaminations have an overlapping ratio (intersection
area of actual and predicted delamination over the actual damage area)
between 71.4% (CFRP#2) and 93.5% (GFRP#2) with an average of
84.0% for using the ANN; while overlapping ratio between 87.0% and

Table 4
Prediction errors for using Database #P2 by SAO and ANN.

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8

Interface errorsa SAO 0 0 0 0 0 −1 0 1

ANN 0 0 0 −1 0 0 2 1
b
AVG errors SAO 3.0 8.8 4.8 3.3 4.3 2.0 1.6 1.1
ANN 3.4 10.7 4.8 6.5 7.9 4.0 4.8 1.0

a
Interface errors: the discrepancy between the actual and predicted interface number, calculated by actual interface number-predicted interface number.
b
AVG errors: the average of absolute prediction errors (%) of the four continuous delamination parameters, x/L, y/W, a/L and b/W.

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Fig. 10. Actual and Prediction of delaminations using (a) SAO and (b) ANN (numerical validations, in CFFF composite plates).
Fig. 11. Actual and Prediction of delaminations using (a) SAO and (b) ANN (numerical validations, in FFFF composite plates).
99.5% with an average of 92.7% for SAO. Again, the overlapping ratio
is higher if using SAO to predict the delaminations. Similarly, the
predictions of delaminations in the FFFF CFRP and GFRP plates through
the simulated frequency shifts can achieve consistent conclusions (see
Fig. 11), that both algorithms can predict delamination locations and
sizes with satisfactory accuracy, with an average overlapping ratio
86.4% for ANN and a higher value of 93.0% for SAO.
It should be noted that, even with numerical test data, the delami-
nation interface is not predicted correctly in all cases by either algo-
rithm. However, the interface prediction has higher accuracy by using
SAO than by using ANN: there is only one case (CFRP#3, both blue
edges) with interface predicted correctly using ANN in Fig. 10 (b); and
there are only two cases (CFRP#3 and GFRP#3) in Fig. 10 (a) using
SAO has predicted interface wrongly.
5.5. Validation of inverse algorithms using measured frequency shifts
The frequency shifts measured in the experimental modal analysis
of composite plates are used as input to the inverse algorithms. The
predicted delaminations by SAO in the six delaminated plate samples
are shown schematically in Fig. 12 (a) and (b), under the CFFF and FFFF
conditions respectively. Similar to the validation using simulated data,
the actual delaminations are represented by rectangles with bold solid
edges and the predicted delaminations are rectangles with thin dashed
lines. The colour coding indicating the interface locations is the same as
that described in previous section. From a comparison of the predicted
delaminations from the measured frequency shifts with the actual de-
laminations, it is immediately obvious that prediction accuracy is lower
using the experimentally measured frequencies than the simulated
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Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266
frequency shifts. It can be seen that most of the interface locations are
predicted incorrectly, with only two out of twelve cases predicted
correctly. The in-plane location of the delamination are also not pre-
dicted accurately.
A comparison of actual and predicted delamination areas and the
corresponding overlap ratios are shown in Table 5. The overlap ratio
between the predicted and actual delaminations takes in to account the
x,y location as well as the interface location of the delamination. It can
be seen that for three out of the 12 test cases (GFRP #4 and CFRP #4
under the two boundary conditions), the location of predicted area has
no correlation to the actual ones. This is clearly a limitation of the
present method. One of the reasons for the high prediction errors could
be the smaller frequency shifts for delaminations close to the surface (as
is the case for CFRP #4). There were also experimental difficulties in
ensuring separation between the sub-laminates for delamination in the
centre of the plate (as is the case for GFRP #4). In the remaining 9
cases, the SAO prediction can provide guide to the actual delamination
locations. It can be seen that even though the predicted overlap ratio is
generally poor, the area of the predicted delamination is close to the
real area (with mean error of 6.2% and 19.6% for CFFF and FFFF plates
respectively). The present inverse technique provides good estimate of
area of delamination, even if the location overlaps are not as good and
can be used as a guide for further inspection using NDI techniques to
plan repair or replace decisions.
It is important to note that delamination assessment for CFFF plates
is relatively better than FFFF plates, which suggests that the perfor-
mance of the algorithm is influenced by the boundary condition. It is
well established that an increased number of the boundary constraints
cause larger frequency shifts. It is hypothesised that the larger
Z. Zhang et al. Composites Part B 144 (2018) 254–266

Fig. 12. Validation of SAO using experimental data for (a) CFFF, (b) FFFF composite plates.

Table 5 6. Sensitivity analysis

Actual and predicted (using SAO) delamination areas and the overlap ratios in %.
The ANN and SAO inverse algorithms evaluate the delamination
Plate No. Delamination area (%) Overlap ratio (%)
parameters based on frequency inputs from FEM and experiments.
CFFF plates FFFF plates CFFF plates FFFF plates There are several factors such as mismatches between the values of the
material properties, boundary conditions and geometric parameters
Actual Predicted Actual Predicted employed in the model that result in the divergence of results between
CFRP#2 13.4 13.4 12.2 11.9 24.5 37.9
FEM and experiments. Furthermore, the delamination simulated in FE
CFRP#3 13.4 15.7 12.3 11.9 85.9 10.1 model may not represent a real delamination in structure, since the
CFRP#4 13.4 12.7 12.3 7.5 0 0 upper and lower delaminated layers in experiments are in contact and
GFRP#2 13.5 13.8 12.4 13.8 65.9 30.2 bearing friction between them, and the real damage area is expected to
GFRP#3 13.6 14.0 12.5 20.1 89.2 48.7
be larger (around the delamination edges) and the delamination
GFRP#4 13.9 15.2 12.8 12.7 0 30.6
boundary regions are more flexible (semi-delaminated). There is also
actual noise in measurement due to measurement errors, resolution of
frequency shifts will lead to an easier and more reliable prediction of the transducers and noise in the system, external noise such as that from
delamination. This will be verified in the future with studies of simply construction vehicles during measurement. The ability of inverse al-
supported and fully clamped plates. gorithms to accurately predict the delamination parameters in the
The delamination parameters predicted by the ANN are very dif- presence of random discrepancies in the natural frequencies can be
ferent from the actual values, with some errors are so large that the investigated using sensitivity analysis. These discrepancies in simulated
predicted delaminations lie outside the boundaries of the plates, i.e. and real frequencies are considered here as percentage noise λ to be
either the predicted interfaces being negative or greater than 4 (noting added to the frequencies from FE model used as inputs to the algorithm.
that, due to symmetry, the interface values range from only 1 to 4) or Four levels of normally distributed noise (4%, 3%, 2% and 1%), were
the values of delamination location or size being negative or more than generated in Matlab and added to the simulated frequencies of a can-
100% (for example, the delamination in CFFF CFRP plate is predicted to tilever delaminated plate model with delamination parameters: inter-
be at interface −1, and the x/L, y/W, a/L, b/W are predicted to be face 4, x-location 50%, y-location 60%, size a 25% and size b 33.33%,
−37.2%, 194.6%, 64.87% and −120.4%). The SAO has the advantage according to Eqn. (8).
that constraints can be set to ensure that the predicted delamination ωdn − noise = ωdn (1 + λ n) (8)
parameters are physically possible. In contrast, ANN becomes vulner-
able to measurement errors which lead to unacceptable predictions where λ n is the percentage noise added to the nth mode of numerical
because of the lack of constraints. From the evaluation of the ANN using frequencyωdn of the delaminated plate. The frequency shifts with noise
experimental frequency shifts, it is clear that it has some serious dis- was then calculated using Eqn. (2), but using the noised frequencies
advantages and that the SAO technique shows more potential for ωdn − noise instead of ωdn . Then, the frequency shifts after adding noise
practical application for predicting delaminations using measurement were input into the inverse algorithms SAO and ANN for predicting the
data from real composite structures. delaminations.
It is also evident that the accuracies of the inverse algorithms in In the preliminary studies, it was found that every time the pseudo-
predicting delamination parameters using numerical frequencies are random generator was run to generate noise at a particular level, the
much higher than those obtained from modal testing for same material distribution of the noise among the frequencies in different modes were
properties and delamination geometries. This is mostly attributable to different, leading to different levels of accuracies in prediction, some of
differences between the structures modelled and those tested (in spite which were good, but some quite poor. To get a reliable estimate of the
of model updating) and potentially measurement errors. Since the accuracy level of delamination prediction, it is necessary to conduct
performance of the inverse algorithms is influenced by the level of analysis of a statistically acceptable number of test cases with different
measurement discrepancies, we are motivated to assess the robustness distributions of random noise even for the same noise level. Otherwise,
of the algorithms by evaluating their sensitivity to model-measurement only a single try to add certain level of noise to the frequencies can lead
discrepancies, referred to as “noise”. It is important to note that the to erroneous judgements in the assessment of accuracy and sensitivity
“noise” refers more to discrepancies between frequencies from mea- of damage prediction algorithms to noise in measurements. Thus, SAO
surements and numerical simulation, which arises from differences and ANN were tested with 100 cases of noise and then further with
between the models and actual structures, than actual noise in mea- Monte Carlo simulation with 100,000 samples in ANN to verify the
surements. results (since ANN can predict in seconds once it is well trained). The
mean values and standard deviations of the multiple sets of predicted

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Table 6 of the discrepancies between the 100 predictions and the actual dela-
Mean and standard deviations of predicted delamination parameters by SAO and ANN in mination was taken to evaluate the prediction accuracy after adding
cantilever FRP plate after adding 2% normally distributed random noise.
artificial noise, which is given by
Actual SAO 2% noise ANN 2% noise ANN 2% noise n 2
(100 samples) (100 samples) (100,000 samples) 1
ΔRMS =
n
∑ (Xp − Xa)
i=1 (9)
Mean Std* Mean Std Mean Std
where Xp is the predicted value of the delamination parameter (x-lo-
Interface 4 2.9 1.1 4.7 2.3 4.7 2.2
x/L (%) 50.0 51.3 11.8 42.3 22.0 45.4 22.8
cation or size), Xa is its actual value, and n is the number of samples.
y/W (%) 60.0 56.8 13.6 −38.3 120.5 −37.3 115.2 The RMS values of prediction errors for SAO and ANN with 100
a/L (%) 25.0 21.9 7.7 −6.6 34.8 −4.4 32.2 samples and the Monte Carlo simulation with 100,000 samples using
b/W (%) 33.3 35.4 11.6 23.8 41.7 23.3 43.6 ANN for delamination parameters x/L, y/W, a/L and b/W are plotted
against the input noise levels in Fig. 13(a), (b), (c) and (d), respectively.
*standard deviation.
It is clear from the plots in Fig. 13 that: (1) ANN has much higher
prediction errors than SAO; (2) even though the curves for ANN with
delamination parameters were calculated to depict the prediction ac-
100 samples is haphazard, they lie close to those obtained with Monte
curacy (Table 6 shows such results after adding 2% artificial noise). As
Carlo simulation with 100,000 samples, indicating that for practical
can be seen, after adding 2% noise to the numerical frequencies, ANN
purposes, even analysis with 100 samples can provide a reasonable
gives minus values (for instance, y/W and a/L) of delamination para-
estimate of prediction accuracies. The discrepancies in predictions of
meters which is not physically possible while SAO can give close pre-
size parameters with SAO do not vary much with noise levels and are
diction with average errors of 100 test cases between 0.3% (in b/W) and
under 10% even with 4% noise level, while the errors in the location
7.5% (in y/W). By comparing the results from ANN of 100 samples and
parameters are between 15 and 20%. The prediction errors with ANN
100,000 samples, it can be seen that they give mean and standard de-
(both for 100 samples and the Monte Carlo simulation) are between 20
viations of the similar order indicating that consideration of the set of
and 25% for x/L, over 120% for y/W, and between 35 and 50% for the
100 samples is enough to give a statistically converged result.
size parameters. It is therefore clear that ANN is more sensitive to noise
It is to be noted that the standard deviation only indicates the
polluted data in comparison to more robust SAO technique.
scatter with respect to the mean value of predictions; hence it will be a
good indicator of accuracy, but only if the mean value of predictions is
close to the actual value. If the mean value has a large discrepancy, it 7. Conclusions
may be more appropriate to use the root mean square (RMS) value of
discrepancies from the actual value rather than standard deviation to In this paper, the size and location parameters of delaminations in
evaluate the accuracy of the predictions. The root mean square (RMS) FRP composite plates were predicted using changes in natural fre-
quencies and an inverse algorithm based on Surrogate Assisted

Fig. 13. Variation of prediction errors for delamination in FRP plate with input noise levels (a) x-location, (b) y-location, (c) delamination length in x direction, and (d) delamination
width in y direction.

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Optimisation. A finite element model of the undamaged and delami-
nated plate was developed in ANSYS and simulations with arbitrary
delaminations were used to train the inverse algorithms. The proposed
SAO algorithm was compared to an inverse algorithm based on
Artificial Neural Network. The prediction performance of the algo-
rithms were evaluated using both numerically simulated frequency
shifts and experimentally measured data. The experimental validation
was conducted on cantilever (CFFF) and free boundary condition
(FFFF) of carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy composite panel specimens.
The proposed SAO exhibits considerable savings in solving the inverse
optimisation problem compared to standard GA algorithm. Both SAO
and ANN were validated using numerical data from FE simulations with
good accuracy. The validation with experimental data show that the
accuracy is not as good in numerical situations, but the SAO algorithm
predicted the in-plane locations and the sizes of the delaminations with
sufficient accuracy to have predicted delamination overlapped with
actual one in most cases. In contrast, ANN failed to predict delamina-
tions in FRP specimens with acceptable accuracy indicating it may be
sensitive to the measurement errors. The inaccuracy in the experi-
mental validation motivates the sensitivity analysis by adding artificial
noise to the numerical frequencies to simulate the FE model-measure-
ment discrepancies. Results show that ANN is more vulnerable to the
noise in frequencies. Comparatively, SAO showed a more stable per-
formance, exhibiting more robustness to the measurement noise. It is
proposed that the present work will be extended in the future to im-
prove the performance of the SAO method for delamination detection.
Another future work is to build a hybrid SHM system combining mul-
tiple assessment methods, for instance, vibration-based, lamb-wave
based, and fibre optic sensor-based inspections, to increase the prob-
ability of detection of delaminations and to ensure the structural in-
tegrity of composite components.
Acknowledgement
The research has been supported by National Natural Science Funds
of China (Grant No. 51508118, 51608135); Natural Science Foundation
of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2016A030310261); Science
and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (Grant
No. 2016B050501004).
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