A Gaussian Process approach to locate cracks in plate-like structures

The problem of non-destructively detecting and localising cracks in plate-like structures is addressed in this paper. A new methodology, based on Gaussian process regression, has been utilised for the detection and localisation of damage in an isotropic plate. The approach has already been proposed by the authors for detecting discontinuities in the smoothness of the mode shapes functions caused by cracks in the case of beam-like structures, and is now extended to the case of two-dimensional structures. The effectiveness of this methodology has been analysed with respect to simulated data using a finite element model of a plate with a crack and increasing amounts of noise. The results are encouraging and consequently it will be worthwhile to further investigate the methodology.