Locating Nonlinear Components in Periodic Structures using Nonlinear Effects

In this study, an effective method is developed to detect the position of nonlinear components in periodic structures. The detection procedure requires exciting the nonlinear systems only once by using a sinusoidal-like input which has two frequency components. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by numerical studies. As the position of a nonlinear component often corresponds to the location of defect in periodic structures, this new method is of great practical significance in fault diagnosis for mechanical and structural systems.