The main objective of this study is to present a novel method for damage detection in plate-type structures using twodimensional (2D) continuous wavelet transforms. For this purpose, the 2D Mexican wavelet is employed to remold the equation of motion for transverse vibration of a plate. The remolded vibration equation of a plate can serve as a multiscale damage detection scheme that characterizes damage using an indicator of multiscale pseudo-load. Effects of multiscale pseudo-load can pinpoint the location of the damage as well as revealing its configuration; moreover, the strong solid mechanics foundation of the method results in the identified damage with an explicit physical implication. The performance of the proposed technique is validated through an experimental program of using a scanning laser vibrometer (SLV) to measure the transverse deflection of an aluminum plate bearing a cross-like notch and an added small mass. The results confirm the robustness and superior capability of the proposed method in detecting damage in plate-type structures.

DOI: 10.1117/12.2009432