Identification of Damage on Stringers By the PSO Method

The paper employs the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method for the identification of damage to a stringer web. This method is inspired by a swarm of bees or flock of birds which look for a common solution. It is a heuristic method, that utilizes a particle as a problem-solving candidate. The location of this particle in the search space represents the configuration of all the variables to possible solutions of the problem. As the particle moves into the solution space, the values of the variables change. The particle is defined by a position vector and a velocity vector. The resulting direction of the particle is determined by three components i.e. (1) the moment or inertia, (2) autobiographical or cognitive information and (3) social interaction. The quality of the particle is evaluated by a comparison function.

In this study we tried to locate damage by using this method. The damage is represented by a rusted area on a stringer web, which was simulated as a change in the Young’s modulus. We used the modal calculation of the eigenfrequencies as an evaluation function.