Wavelet-based feature extraction for automatic defect classification in strands by ultrasonic structural monitoring

The structural monitoring of multi-wire strands is of importance to prestressed concrete structures and cable-stayed or suspension bridges. This paper addresses the monitoring of strands by ultrasonic guided waves with emphasis on the signal processing and automatic defect classification. The detection of notch-like defects in the strands is based on the reflections of guided waves that are excited and detected by magnetostrictive ultrasonic transducers. The Discrete Wavelet Transforrn was used to extract damage-sensitive features from the detected signals and to construct a multi-dimensional Damage Index vector. The Damage Index vector was then fed to an Artificial Neural Network to provide the automatic classification of (a) the size of the notch and (b) the location of the notch from the receiving sensor. Following an optimization study of the network, it was determined that five dam age-sensitive features provided the best defect classification performance with an overall success rate of 90.8%. It was thus demonstrated that the wavelet-based multidimensional analysis can provide excellent classification performance for notch-type defects in strands.