Laboratory for Dynamics of Machines and Structures 
Full-field full-stress-tensor identification of base-excited structures
 J. Šonc, K. Zaletelj and J. Slavič
Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, p. 114786, 2026

download pdf   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2026.114786

More research on: vibration fatigue, optical methods,
Abstract
Identifying the full-stress tensor over the surface of a vibrating structure is essential for design validation and vibration-fatigue-life estimation, yet current experimental methods provide only pointwise or incomplete stress data. Infrared cameras can provide non-contact, full-field surface-stress measurements on vibrating structures via the thermoelastic effect; however, they measure only the first stress invariant (i.e., the sum of the normal stresses at the free surface: σxxyy). The individual stress components (σxx, σyy, τxy) required for a complete characterization of the surface-stress state remain inaccessible from a single thermoelastic measurement. This article introduces a method that recovers the full-field, in-plane-stress power spectral density (PSD) field from thermoelastic camera data on a base-excited structure, demonstrated for thin, isotropic, metallic, plate-like structures under adiabatic conditions. First, a characterization measurement identifies the hybrid stress-mode shapes containing all the plane-stress components by merging thermoelastic camera data with a simplified FE model through SEMM. Then, during operation under broadband random base excitation, the camera response is projected onto these mode shapes and expanded to the full-stress-tensor PSD. The method is validated experimentally on a clamped aluminium plate, identifying spatially resolved stress PSDs for all three in-plane components (σxx, σyy, τxy). The full-field first invariant σxxyy is measured experimentally; the individual components σxx, σyy and τxy are reconstructed through an experimentally corrected modal expansion informed by an FE stress basis, which supplies the inter-component ratios.
Authors

Researcher

Jaša Šonc, PhD Student

  Ladisk, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana
  jasa.sonc@fs.uni-lj.si
  +386 1 4771 230
GScholar     jasasonc    

Assistant

Klemen Zaletelj, PhD

  Ladisk, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana
  klemen.zaletelj@fs.uni-lj.si
  +386 1 4771 228
GScholar     klemengit    

Professor

Janko Slavič, PhD

  Ladisk, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana
  janko.slavic@fs.uni-lj.si
  +386 1 4771 226
GScholar     jankoslavic     jankoslavic        CV