Composite beam identification using a variant of the inhomogeneous wave correlation method in presence of uncertainties

International audiencePurpose: This paper aims to propose numerical-based and experiment-based identification processes, accounting for uncertainties to identify structural parameters, in a wave propagation framework.Design/methodology/approach: A variant of the inhomogeneous wave correlation (IWC) method is proposed. It consists on identifying the propagation parameters, such as the wavenumber and the wave attenuation, from the frequency response functions. The latters can be computed numerically or experimentally. The identification process is thus called numerical-based or experiment-based, respectively. The proposed variant of the IWC method is then combined with the Latin hypercube sampling method for uncertainty propagation. Stochastic processes are consequently proposed allowing more realistic identification.Findings: The proposed variant of the IWC method permits to identify accurately the propagation parameters of isotropic and composite beams, whatever the type of the identification process in which it is included: numerical-based or experiment-based. Its efficiency is proved with respect to an analytical model and the Mc Daniel method, considered as reference. The application of the stochastic identification processes shows good agreement between simulation and experiment-based results and that all identified parameters are affected by uncertainties, except damping.Originality/value: The proposed variant of the IWC method is an accurate alternative for structural identification on wide frequency ranges. Numerical-based identification process can reduce experiments’ cost without significant loss of accuracy. Statistical investigations of the randomness of identified parameters illustrate the robustness of identification against uncertainties