On the inverse problem of rectangular plates subjected to elastic impact, part I: Method development and numerical verification

A method to identify both the impact location and the transverse impact force history from the strain responses at certain points on a rectangular plate is presented. The governing equations of the plate were obtained by applying the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory and the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The strain response was related to the impact force by solving the above equations using the eigenmode expansion method. A mutuality relationship among any pairs of strain responses was used to find the impact location without knowing in advance the impact force history. The force history was subsequently determined after the impact location was identified. The conjugate gradient method was adopted to search for the optimal impact location as well as the force history. Numerical verification was performed using randomly generated impact locations and force histories to simulate impact events. The excellent agreement showed the effectiveness and the validity of the proposed method.