Multi step structural health monitoring approaches in debonding assessment in a sandwich honeycomb composite structure using ultrasonic guided waves

This paper aims to investigate the use of ultrasonic guided wave (GW) propagation mechanism and the assessment of debonding in a sandwich composite structure (SCS) using a multi-step approach. Towards this, a series of GW propagation-based laboratory experiments and numerical simulations have been carried out on the SCS sample. The debonding regions of variable size and locations were assessed using a pre-defined network of piezoelectric lead zirconate transducers (PZT). Besides, several artificial masses were also placed in the SCS to validate the multi-step structural health monitoring (SHM) strategy. The SHM approach uses a proposed quick damage identification matrix maps and an improved elliptical wave processing (EWP) strategy of the registered GW signals to detect the locations of debonding and other damages in the SCS. The benefit of the proposed damage identification map is to locate the damaged area (sectors) quickly. This identification step is followed by applying the damage localization step using the improved EWP only on the previously identified damage sector region. The proposed EWP has shown the potential to effectively locate the hidden multiple debonding regions and damages in the SCS with a reduced number of calculations using a step-wise approach that uses only a selected number of grid points. The paper shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach based on data gathered from numerical simulations and experimental studies. Thus, using the above-mentioned SHM strategy debondings and damages present within and outside the sensor network are localized. The results were cross verified with nondestructive testing (NDT) methods such as infrared thermography and laser Doppler vibrometry

A global-local damage localization and quantification approach in composite structures using ultrasonic guided waves and active infrared thermography

The paper emphasizes an effective quantification of hidden damage in composite structures using ultrasonic guided wave (GW) propagation-based structural health monitoring (SHM) and an artificial neural network (ANN) based active infrared thermography (IRT) analysis. In recent years, there has been increased interest in using a global-local approach for damage localization purposes. The global approach is mainly used in identifying the damage, while the local approach is quantifying. This paper presents a proof-of-study to use such a global-local approach in damage localization and quantification. The main novelties in this paper are the implementation of an improved SHM GW algorithm to localize the damages, a new pixel-based confusion matrix to quantify the size of the damage threshold, and a newly developed IRT-ANN algorithm to validate the damage quantification. From the SHM methodology, it is realized that only three sensors are sufficient to localize the damage, and an ANN- IRT imaging algorithm with only five hidden neurons in quantifying the damage. The robust SHM methods effectively identified, localized, and quantified the different damage dimensions against the non-destructive testing-IRT method in different composite structures

Damage Assessment for a Sandwich-Like Panel Using Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Guided Waves

The presence of damage significantly affects the system’s performance. Various damage detection methods are available to identify damage in engineering structures. The guided wave propagation-based nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods have proven their potential to effectively identify damage in such advanced structures due to the long-distance inspection capability and the capacity to interrogate the whole thickness of a structure. Therefore, in the present study, the laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) and numerical simulations are used to study the guided wave propagation and their capabilities to identify different types of damage regions in a sandwich-like structure comprising of an aramid core and aluminum skin. The piezoelectric sensor-based excitation is used. The damage involved in this study is barely visible impact damage (BVID) of different diameters and a hole. The presence of damages causes abrupt changes to the wave field of the guided waves. Full field and elliptical-based signal processing methods are used in determining the region of damage. Thus, the damage region is visualized in this comparative study

A Study of Sensor Placement Optimization Problem for Guided Wave-Based Damage Detection

Guided waves (GW) allow fast inspection of a large area and hence have attracted research interest from the structural health monitoring (SHM) community. Thus, GW-based SHM is ideal for thin structures such as plates, pipes, etc., and is finding applications in several fields like aerospace, automotive, wind energy, etc. The GW propagate along the surface of the sample and get reflected from discontinuities in the structure in the form of boundaries and damage. Through proper signal processing of the reflected waves based on their time of arrival, the damage can be detected and isolated. For complex structures, a higher number of sensors may be required, which increases the cost of the equipment, as well as the mass. Thus, there is an effort to reduce the number of sensors without compromising the quality of the monitoring achieved. It is of utmost importance that the entire structure can be investigated. Hence, it is necessary to optimize the locations of the sensors in order to maximize the coverage while limiting the number of sensors used. A genetic algorithm (GA)-based optimization strategy was proposed by the authors for use in a simple aluminum plate. This paper extends the optimization methodology for other shape plates and presents experimental, analytical, and numerical studies. The sensitivity studies have been carried out by changing the relative weights of the application demands and presented in the form of a Pareto front. The Pareto front allows comparison of the relative importance of the different application demands, and an appropriate choice can be made based on the information provided

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Multiple Low-Velocity Impact Damages in a Glass Fibered Composite Structure

Glass fiber-reinforced polymer structures (GFRPS) are widely used in civil and mechanical fields due to their light weight and corrosion resistance. However, these structures are prone to damage with very-low-energy impacts. The reliability of such structures is of prime importance before their installation and usage. This study aimed to identify, visualize, localize, and verify multiple barely visible impact damage (BVID) in a GFRPS using a combination of guided waves (GW)-based online structural health monitoring (SHM) and thermal strain-based nondestructive testing (NDT) approaches. Global NDT techniques like the use of a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) and digital image correlation (DIC) were used in the experimental analysis. The effectiveness of the experimental LDV-GW process was also checked numerically with the spectral element method (SEM). A threshold-based baseline free SHM approach to effectively localize the damages was proposed along with quick DIC verification of composite structure with thermal loading based on short-pulse heating as an excitation source. This study analyzed combined experimental- and numerical-based SHM-NDT methods in characterizing the multiple BVIDs located in a GFRPS

A Two-Step Guided Waves Based Damage Localization Technique Using Optical Fiber Sensors

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems help in reducing maintenance cost and avoiding catastrophic failure of the structure. As a result, they have been a focus of research for the past few decades. Ideally, the methods employed should be low cost and able to detect and localize small levels of damage reliably and accurately. This paper describes a guided waves (GW) based two-step technique for damage detection and localization using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. The FBG sensors offer benefits such as the ability to be embedded and multiplexed as well as being lightweight and insensitive to electric and magnetic fields, and they have long been seen as a promising solution for the GW measurements in structures. Unfortunately, in the conventional wavelength-based interrogation they have very low signal to noise ratio and as a result low sensitivity. Therefore, the FBG sensor is incorporated in the edge filtering configuration. The major challenges in the use of FBG sensors for GW-based detection are their directional sensitivity and passive nature. The passive nature leads to the reduction in the available actuator–sensor (AS) pairs while the directionality makes the signal processing a challenge. The proposed two-step methodology overcomes these shortcomings of FBG sensors. In the first step the amplitude weighted elliptical approach is used to identify the hotspots due to the inadequate number of AS pairs, the elliptical approach is not sufficient for damage localization. Therefore, in order to further localize the damage the edge reflection based ray-tracing approach is implemented in the second step. Through the two step method, the damage is accurately located. The paper provides the proof of concept of the proposed methodology on an aluminum plate with simulated damage. The results indicate, that indeed the two-step methodology allows accurate damage localization and overcomes the possibility of false detections