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The article presents a non-destructive welded joints assessment (vibrodiagnostics) method, in which, with the use of the Internet, computer networking technologies and laser displacement sensors, the quality of welded steel plates may be monitored. The article also describes the possibilities of analysis of received vibrodiagnostics data on the base of diagnostic parameters analysed in function of time and frequency. The method described in the article allows remotely registering, analysing and diagnosing mechanical systems using vibrodiagnostics and information technologies. Modern, computerized methods exhibit efficiency and reliability of results – they are currently the best measuring tools that can be used in automatic monitoring (structural health monitoring - SHM) of marine structures. It is essential to make objective assessment of the results by NDT users, which is tightly connected with the expertise of norms and regulations of NDT. It may be helpful in this respect to monitor responses from a few sensors, arranged in a few measuring points. NDT results quite often trigger further analysis of durability of an object. The NDT of welded joints method as presented in the article allows remotely and in an IT-aided way analysing and diagnosing mechanical systems with the use of vibrodiagnostics method.

The authors of the article have been looking for a new parameters and dynamic characteristics, which can be applied to non-destructive testing of welded joints. All characteristics have been based on recorded data generated during the vibration tests of welded joints with and without failures. The article deals with the methods of assessing welding joints using 2D: time – frequency dynamic characteristics. A calculation procedure used for analysing simultaneous changes of the response modules, registered by acceleration sensors was presented. Vibrations amplitudes were transformed to a function of time and frequency (simultaneously) and presented over 2D time – frequency characteristics. The analyses of the characteristics were performed for a plate without any welded joint, for a plate with non-defected welded joint and for a plate with a welded joint defected by an edge bonding. Having analysed registered 2D time – frequency dynamic characteristics it can be noticed that presenting the responses analysed simultaneously over the time and frequency allows evaluating if examined system maintains non-linearity and, at the same time, it allows to indirectly assess the quality of the welded joint. The proposed measure parameters of the quality of a welded joint can be defined as a dispersion of colours on the obtained characteristics. The faults (and the vibration nonlinearity) of the welded joints is bigger if the dispersion is greater.

Among non-destructive testing methods of welded joints, a vibrodiagnostic method is one of the most promising in applications intended for the continuous monitoring of the structure. The accelerometer-recorded responses provide diagnostic information that requires mathematical processing to extract the essential features typical of the tested welded joints and to evaluate their execution. For this purpose, the proposed method was based on the determination of damping decrement in function of time. Due to the complexity of the responses run, a proposed method consisted of calculating the damping decrement using the response approximation with different functions. It has been shown that the changes analysis of damping decrement applied to welded plates enables the assessment of the quality associated with the weld. Attention was also paid to the elements relevant to the study. This work presents the algorithm and exemplary results obtained from the application of proposed method to several selected sample plates with different type of welds. A scientific apparatus, which purpose was to record dynamic characteristics of welded joints was also described.

In continuous monitoring systems of welded joints of thin-walled structures, a vibrodiagnostic method is the most promising. Its most important advantage is that it is effective and offers the greatest real-time research capabilities. It is used in classic NDT techniques as well as in structural health monitoring during exploitation. This work presents a measurement method of dynamic characteristics of the structure with the use of piezoelectric sensors. The article presents the assumptions concerning the evaluation of welded joints using the analysis of the mean value distribution of the amplitude spectrums calculated by the time window method. The statistical measure used in the form of the mean value is a proposed parameter. The parameter’s analysis for a given welded joint may enable an unambiguous assessment of its quality. Attention was paid to the elements important for the study. A calculation algorithm as well as and the exemplary results from the proposed method used for some selected samples with different welds is included in the article. The work contains the description of the scientific apparatus to register dynamic characteristics in case of welded joints. The results of the tests show that the analysis of the distribution of mean value for amplitude spectrums calculated by the time window method indicates that they differ markedly depending on the welds, indicating their quality and defects that are associated with them.