Application of proper orthogonal decomposition and radial basis functions for crack size estimation using particle swarm optimization

Abstract

Complex engineering problems require simulations, which are computationally expensive in cases of inverse identification tasks since they commonly requires hundreds of thousands of simulations. This paper propose a method based on model reduction for crack size estimation, combining the proper orthogonal decomposition method with radial basis functions. The reduced model is validated by comparing the obtained boundary displacements with the corresponding results from a finite element model. This inverse procedure is formulated as the minimization of the difference between the measured and computed values of displacement at selected boundary nodes, called sensor points, using particle swarm optimization algorithm. Convex and a non-convex specimens have been considered for investigations of crack presence, and identification of its size, different crack sizes have been tested to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.