METHOD FOR DETERMINING A STRUCTURAL STATE OF A MECHANICALLY LOADED UNIT

A structural state of at least one component of a mechanically loaded target unit, in particular a target unit of a rail vehicle, can be determined by introducing, in an actual excitation step of an evaluation cycle, a defined actual mechanical input signal into the target unit, capturing, in an actual capturing step of the evaluation cycle, an actual mechanical response signal of the target unit to the mechanical input signal, and comparing, in an actual evaluation step of the evaluation cycle, the actual mechanical response signal to a previously recorded baseline signal to establish an actual differential feature and using the actual differential feature to determine the structural state. The baseline signal is representative of a previous mechanical response signal of the target unit to a previous mechanical input signal.