Damage localization at wind turbine support structures using sequential quadratic programming for model updating

In this paper a method for damage localization using finite element model updating is introduced as a subsequent step to a three tier SHM scheme for damage detection. Modal parameters are used for the formulation of an objective function of an optimization problem. This problem is solved using sequential quadratic programming. The proposed approach is applied to two examples. The first is a purely numerical benchmark that proves the functionality of the algorithm for damage localization. The second example is a scaled model of a wind energy converter on a tripile structure with real damage. The algorithm is able to locate damages with a small disturbance of the initial parameters, but it reveals a poor convergence behaviour. This is assumed to be caused by the Maratos effect.