International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

E-ISSN22498974

Research Paper

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF A CRACKED CANTILEVER

BEAM
Mihir Kumar Sutar

Address for Correspondence

Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand, INDIA,
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the finite element analysis of a cracked cantilever and analyzes the relation between the modal natural
frequencies with crack depth, modal natural frequency with crack location. Also the relation among the crack depth, crack
location and natural frequency has been analyzed. Only single crack at different depth and at different location are evaluated.
And the analysis reveals a relationship between crack depth and modal natural frequency. As we know when a structure
suffers from damage its dynamic property can change and it was observed that crack caused a stiffness reduction with an
inherent reduction in modal natural frequencies. Consequently it leads to the change in the dynamic response of the beam.
The analysis was performed using ALGOR software. Modal natural frequency was found to be decreasing with increase in
crack depth. And the same was found to be increasing with increase in crack location from the fixed end.
KEYWORDS: Free Vibration; Crack; cantilever Beam; Modal Natural frequencies; ALGOR

1. INTRODUCTION
Being very commonly used in steel construction and
machinery industries, health monitoring and the
analysis of damage in the form of crack in Beam
structures poses a vital mean. Since long efforts are
on their way to find a feasible solution for crack
detection in beam structures in this regard many
approaches have so far being taken place. When a
structure suffers from damages, its dynamic
properties can change. Crack damage leads to
reduction in stiffness also with an inherent reduction
in natural frequency and increase in modal damping.
The paper gives a feasible relationship between the
modal natural frequency and the crack depth at
different location. Since free vibration analysis has
frequently become a topic of many studies therefore
attention is focused it only.
Crack localization and sizing in a beam from the free
and forced response measurements method is
indicated by Karthikeyan et al. [1]. In the beam
Timoshenko beam theory is used for modeling
transverse vibrations.FEM is used for the free and
forced vibration analysis of the cracked beam and
open transverse crack is selected for the crack model.
Being iterative in nature the iteration starts with a
guess for the crack depth ratio and iteratively
estimates the crack location and crack depth until the
desired convergence for both is reached.
The amount of literature related to damage detection
using shifts in resonant frequencies is quite large.
Salawu and Williams [2] presents an excellent review
on the use of modal frequency changes for damage
diagnostics. The observation that changes in
structural properties cause changes in vibration
frequencies was the impetus for using modal methods
for damage identification and health monitoring
Kim and Zhao [3] proposed a novel crack detection
method using harmonic response. It was concluded in
their paper that slope response has a sharp change
with the crack location and depth of the crack and
therefore it can used as a crack detection criterion. A
fault diagnosis method based on genetic algorithms
(GAs) and a model of damaged (cracked) structure is
proposed by Taghi et al. [4]. In their approach the
identification of the crack location and depth in the
cantilever beam is formulated as an optimization
problem, and binary and continuous genetic
IJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/285-289

algorithms (BGA, CGA) are used to find the optimal

location and depth by minimizing the cost function.
Ratcliffe [5] performed the frequency and curvaturebased experiments. Orhan [6] in his study analyzed
the free and forced vibration of a cantilever beam in
order to identify the crack of a cantilever beam.
Single and two edged crack were mainly evaluated in
his study. The investigation reveals that free vibration
analysis provides suitable information for the
detection of single and two cracks; whereas forced
vibration can detect only the single crack condition.
However, dynamic response of the forced vibration
better describes changes in crack depth and location
than the free vibration
Chang and Chen [7] presented technique for structure
damage detection based on spatial wavelet analysis
and the innovation of the proposed method is that
both the positions and depths of multi-cracks can be
estimated from spatial wavelet based method. First,
the mode shapes of free vibration and natural
frequencies of the multiple cracked beams are
obtained. It was observed from the analysis that the
positions and depths of the cracks can be predicted
with acceptable precision even though there are many
cracks in the beam.
2. FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION
2.1 Governing Equation of Free Vibration
The free bending vibration of an Euler-Bernoulli
beam of a constant rectangular cross-section is given
by the following differential equation as given in:

EI

d4 y
dx

mw i2 y = 0

1
Where m is the mass of the beam per unit length
(kg/m), w i is the natural frequency of the ith mode
(rad/sec), E is the modulus of elasticity (N/m2) and I
is the moment of inertia (m4). By defining

4 = w i2 m / EI equation (1) is rearranged as a

fourth-order differential equation as follows:

d4 y
dx

4 y = 0
....2

The general solution to equation (2) is

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

E-ISSN22498974

y = Acos i x + Bsin i x + Ccosh i x + Dsinh i x

3
Where A, B, C, D are constants and i is a frequency

.13

parameter. Since the bending vibration is studied,

edge crack is modeled as a rotational spring with a
lumped stiffness. The crack is assumed open. Based
on this modeling, the beam is divided into two
segments: the first and second segments are left and
right-hand side of the crack, respectively. Adopting
Hermitian shape functions, the stiffness matrix of the
two-noded beam element without a crack is obtained
using the standard integration based on the variation
in flexural rigidity as

K e = [ B(x) ]T EI [ B(x)]dx

Where [ B(x)] =
And

.14

.15

.4

.16

H1" (x)H"2 (x)H"3 (x)H"4 (x) , 5

H1 (x) , H 2 (x) , H3 (x) , H 4 (x) are the

Hermitian shape functions defined as

.17
.6
.18
.7

lc = 1.5d, and is the distance between the left

.8

node and the crack. It is supposed that the crack does

not affect the mass distribution of the beam.
Therefore, the consistent mass matrix of the beam
element can be formulated directly as
l

.9
Assuming the beam rigidity EI is constant and is
given by EI0 within the element, and then the element
stiffness is

6l 12 6l
12

6l 4l2 6l 2l2
EI

e
0
K =
l3 12 6l 12 6l

6l 2l2 6l 4l2

K ec of the cracked element can be

written as

K ec = K e [ K c ]

Where

.11

[ K c ] is the reduction in the stiffness matrix

due to the crack. According to Peng et al. [8], the

matrix

[ K c ] is

k12
k11
k
k
[ K c ] = k12 k22
11
12

k 24
k14

k11
k12
k11
k14

.19

And we have

156 22l

Me = Al 22l 4l2

13l
420 54

13l 3l2

13l

13l 3l2
156 22l

22l 4l2
54

.20

.10
Assuming the stiffness reduction caused by as open
crack falls within a single element, and then the
stiffness matrix

Me = A [ H(x)]T [ H(x)]

k14
k 24
k14

k 44

Where

[ H(x)] = {H1 (x)H2 (x)H3 (x)H4 (x)}

In the dynamic analysis, the system matrix is usually

required to be inverted. From this aspect, a
diagonalized mass matrix has a computational
advantage. In this study, a diagonalized mass matrix
is adopted, which is developed from the consistent
mass matrix using the approach

39 0

Al
0 l
e
M =
78 0 0

0 0

0 0
39 0

0 l2
0

.21
The natural frequency then can be calculated from
the relation
w

.12

Where
IJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/285-289

[ M ] + [ K ]{q } =

.22

The natural frequency of the ith mode for uncracked

and cracked beams is finally obtained as follows

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

EI

w i0 = ci
w i = ri ci

E-ISSN22498974

assembled external force vector, and

ml
EI

.23

ml4

.24

w i0 is the ith mode frequency of the

uncracked beam and ci is a constant depending on

{q(t)}

is the

assembled vector of nodal degrees of freedom of the

system.
Let the force vector be defined as

{F(t)} = {F} e jwt

Where

Where

{}

.30

w is the forcing frequency, F is the force

the mode number and beam end conditions (for

clamped-free beam, ci is 3.516 and 22.034 for the

amplitude vector (elements of which are complex

w i is the i th
mode frequency of the cracked beam. r I is the ratio

{q(t)} = {q} e jwt

first and second mode, respectively),

between the natural frequencies of the cracked and

uncracked beam. l is the length of the beam.
2.2 Governing Equation of Forced Vibration
The Euler-Bernoulli beam is discretized into finite
beam element without crack and can be written as

..

[ M ](e) q(t)

(e)

+ [ K wc ]

(e)

Where [ M ]

(e)

{q(t)}(e) = {F(t)}(e)

.25

is the element mass matrix, [ K wc ](e)

is the element stiffness matrix,

{F(t)}(e)

is the

element external force vector, {q(t)}(e) is the element

vector of nodal degree of freedom and t is the time
instant. The subscript wc represents without crack.
And the subscript e represents element and the dot
represents the derivative with respect to the time. The
crack is assumed to affect only the stiffness. So the
equation of a cracked beam element can be expressed
as
(e)

[ M]

..

qc (t)

Where

{qc (t)}(e) is the nodal degree of freedom of

(e)

+ [Kc ]

(e)

{qc (t)}(e) = {F(t)}(e)

.26

the cracked element, the subscript c represent the

[ Kc ](e)

crack and

is the stiffness matrix of the

cracked element and is given as

1

[ K c ](e) = [T ][ C](e) [T ]T

.27

With

[C](e) = [C0 ](e) + [Cc ](e)

.28

[ C0 ](e) is the flexibility matrix of the

uncracked beam element, [Cc ](e) is the flexibility

Where

matrix of the crack, and [ C](e) is the total flexibility

matrix of the cracked beam element. Equations of
motion of the complete system can be obtained by
assembling the contribution of all equations of
motions motion for cracked and uncracked elements
in the system. Then the system equation of motion
becomes

..

[ M ] q(t) + [ K ]{q(t)} = {F(t)}

Where

[ M]

.29

is the assembled mass matrix,

the assembled stiffness matrix,

{F(t)}

[K]

is

is the

IJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/285-289

quantities) and j =
can be assumed as

Where

{q}

1 . Thus, the response vector

.31

is the response amplitude vector and

their elements are complex quantities. Substituting

the equations (30) and (31) into equation (29), the
system governing as follows:

( w

[ M ] + [ K ]) {q } = {F }

For a given system properties (i.e.

[ M]

.32
and

[K] )

the response can be simulated from equation (32)

corresponding to a given force {F } .
3. CONFIGURATIONS OF SIMULATED
CRACK
In this particular approach the free vibration of a
cantilever beam having V-shaped edge crack are
studied. The length of the beam is 800 mm and the
cross-section of the same is 50 x 6 mm2. As per the
material properties the modulus of elasticity (E) is 70
x 109 N/m2 and the mass density () is 2710 kg/m3.
Different crack configurations of same depth and at
different locations (from different distance from the
fixed end) are prepared to find out how the crack
affects the dynamic behavior of the beam. Crack
depth was kept constant at 0.202 mm and the crack
location from the fixed end was varied at instances of
50 mm, 100 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm, 400 mm, 500
mm, 600 mm and 700 mm. And the effect of crack
location on the natural frequencies was investigated.
Also the crack location from the fixed end was kept
constant and crack depth was varied from 0.05 to 4
mm at each step in order to investigate the effect of
crack depth on natural frequencies. Figure 1 shows
on of the total nineteen crack depths at a particular
crack locations where crack depth d varies from 0.05
to 4 mm.

Fig. 1 Single crack on the cantilever beam at

300 mm length from the fixed end
4. THE FINITE ELEMENT MODELING
ALGOR software was used for the free vibration
analysis of the uncracked and cracked beams. For this
purpose a model of the uncracked and cracked beams
was prepared in the CATIAV5R15 and the same
were brought into the ALGOR environment and the
mesh was generated. The beam was discretized into

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

E-ISSN22498974

8250 elements with 11746 nodes. The cantilever

boundary conditions were modeled by constraining
all degrees of freedom of the nodes located at the left
hand side of the beam. Figure 2 shows the finite
element mesh model of the beam element. Three
modes were selected to extract and first 3 modes of
natural frequencies were calculated for uncracked and
cracked beam. This procedure was thereafter repeated
for different crack scenarios. The crack zone portion
with arrow mark is being highlighted in figure 3.

Fig. 6 Third mode Natural Frequency versus

crack depth

Fig. 2 Finite Element Model of cantilever Beam in

ALGOR environment

Fig. 3 Details of crack zone

6. RESULTS
The change in natural frequencies with crack depth
for three different modes is plotted in figure 4, 5 and
6. And it was observed that in all the cases the modal
natural frequencies decrease with increase in crack
depth.

Fig. 4 First Mode Natural Frequency versus crack

depth

Fig. 7 Comparison of First Mode Natural

Frequency at 50 mm and 500 mm
As shown in Figure 7 as the crack location from the
fixed end increases the modal natural frequencies
also increases. A comparison has been made between
the First Mode of natural frequencies at crack lengths
of 50 and 500 mm from the fixed end respectively at
subsequent crack depths.

Fig. 8 Three dimensional cum contour plot for

relative First Mode Natural Frequency
The relation among the crack depth, crack location
and natural frequency has also being analyzed and is
plotted as shown in the figure 8 .Only First mode of
vibration of vibration is considered for this
comparison. And it was observed that as the crack
location from the fixed end increases the modal
natural frequency also increases. And when the crack
depth at a particular crack location increases the
modal natural frequency decreases.
REFERENCES
1.

2.

Fig. 5 Second Mode Natural frequency versus

crack depth
IJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/285-289

M. Karthikeyan, R. Tiwari, S. Talukdar (2006). Crack

localization and sizing in a beam based on the free and
forced response measurements. Mechanical Systems
and Signal Processing 21 (2007). pp. 13621385
Salawu, O. S. and Williams, C., 1993, Structural
Damage Detection Using Experimental Modal Analysis

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

A Comparison Of Some Methods, in Proc. of 11th

International Modal Analysis Conference, pp. 254260
Kim M-B, Zhao M. Study on crack detection of beam
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Mohammad-Taghi
Vakil-Baghmisheh,
Mansour
Peimani, Morteza Homayoun Sadeghi, Mir Mohammad
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Chih-Chieh Chang, Lien-Wen Chen(2005). Detection
of the location and size of cracks in the multiple cracked
beam by spatial wavelet based approach. Mechanical
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Peng, Z. K., Lang, Z. Q., Billings, S.A.(2007), Crack
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E-ISSN22498974