materials-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2017) | Viewed by 139911

Special Issue Editors

Research Center of Structural Health Monitoring and Prognosis, State Key Lab of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 29 YuDao Street, Nanjing, China
Interests: structural health monitoring; smart structures; wireless sensor network; smart sensor; signal processing and information processing methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is an emerging topic of great interest. SHM hold the promise of improving aerospace safety and reliability while reducing life-cycle operational and maintenance costs. SHM topics span sensing, structural interrogation, data interpretation, structural diagnosis and prognosis. Theoretical predictive studies, and experimental validation and verification are very important. Efficient design of reliable SHM systems is necessary for obtaining high-confidence estimations with minimal false-positive and false-negative results. Transitioning of SHM concepts to real world applications and the development of turn-key SHM systems will help to develop the business case for SHM through realistic cost-benefit analysis and first-hand user experience.

Prof. Dr. Victor Giurgiutiu
Prof. Dr. Shenfang Yuan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • structural health monitoring(SHM)
  • nondestructive evaluation(NDE)
  • ultrasonic guided waves
  • fibre optic sensors
  • piezoelectric sensors and transducers
  • wave-damage interaction
  • predictive analysis
  • sensor optimization
  • SHM system development
  • SHM system reliability
  • SHM probability of detection
  • damage detection and characterization
  • impact detection
  • SHM verification and validation

Published Papers (28 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

5107 KiB  
Article
Towards an Ultrasonic Guided Wave Procedure for Health Monitoring of Composite Vessels: Application to Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft
by Slah Yaacoubi, Peter McKeon, Weina Ke, Nico F. Declercq and Fethi Dahmene
Materials 2017, 10(9), 1097; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10091097 - 19 Sep 2017
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5064
Abstract
This paper presents an overview and description of the approach to be used to investigate the behavior and the defect sensitivity of various ultrasonic guided wave (UGW) modes propagating specifically in composite cylindrical vessels in the framework of the safety of hydrogen energy [...] Read more.
This paper presents an overview and description of the approach to be used to investigate the behavior and the defect sensitivity of various ultrasonic guided wave (UGW) modes propagating specifically in composite cylindrical vessels in the framework of the safety of hydrogen energy transportation such as hydrogen-powered aircrafts. These structures which consist of thick and multi-layer composites are envisioned for housing hydrogen gas at high pressures. Due to safety concerns associated with a weakened structure, structural health monitoring techniques are needed. A procedure for optimizing damage detection in these structural types is presented. It is shown that a finite element method can help identify useful experimental parameters including frequency range, excitation type, and receiver placement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

4790 KiB  
Article
Design of Waveguide Bars for Transmitting a Pure Shear Horizontal Wave to Monitor High Temperature Components
by Jiuhong Jia, Qiyue Wang, Zuoyu Liao, Yun Tu and Shan-Tung Tu
Materials 2017, 10(9), 1027; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10091027 - 04 Sep 2017
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4522
Abstract
Guided wave technique could be a possible method for monitoring components working in high temperature above 350 °C. However, this would require the design of an appropriate waveguide bar to transmit the wave, so that its sensing part is not influenced by the [...] Read more.
Guided wave technique could be a possible method for monitoring components working in high temperature above 350 °C. However, this would require the design of an appropriate waveguide bar to transmit the wave, so that its sensing part is not influenced by the high temperature. In the present study, the shape of waveguide bars is designed based on the analysis of wave source characteristics. The critical frequency-width and frequency-thickness products of waveguide bars are analyzed theoretically and numerically to transmit the zeroth shear horizontal wave SH0* in bars. The results show that waveguide bars can cut off all the other wave modes when their frequency-thickness products are smaller than the critical value fd*, and frequency-width products are not smaller than the critical value fw*. Six waveguide bars are designed and fabricated based on the design criteria, and an experiment system is set up to check their work performance. The testing results indicate that the wave signals of the SH0* mode propagate clearly in waveguide bars, and cut off all the other modes when the frequency-thickness products and frequency-width products of the bars meet the design criteria. It is also demonstrated that the dependency of the experimental group velocity of each waveguide bar on frequency is in good agreement with the numerical result. High-temperature experiments also validate the reliability of the designed waveguide bars. Therefore, the critical frequency-thickness product and frequency-width product can be the basis for the design of the waveguide bars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

9343 KiB  
Article
Fatigue Performance of Ti-6Al-4V Additively Manufactured Specimens with Integrated Capillaries of an Embedded Structural Health Monitoring System
by Michaël Hinderdael, Maria Strantza, Dieter De Baere, Wim Devesse, Iris De Graeve, Herman Terryn and Patrick Guillaume
Materials 2017, 10(9), 993; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10090993 - 25 Aug 2017
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5294
Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM) of metals offers new possibilities for the production of complex structures. Up to now, investigations on the mechanical response of AM metallic parts show a significant spread and unexpected failures cannot be excluded. In this work, we focus on the [...] Read more.
Additive manufacturing (AM) of metals offers new possibilities for the production of complex structures. Up to now, investigations on the mechanical response of AM metallic parts show a significant spread and unexpected failures cannot be excluded. In this work, we focus on the detection of fatigue cracks through the integration of a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system in Ti-6Al-4V specimens. The working principle of the presented system is based on the integration of small capillaries that are capable of detecting fatigue cracks. Four-point bending fatigue tests have been performed on Ti-6Al-4V specimens with integrated capillaries and compared to the reference specimenswithout capillaries. Specimens were produced by conventional subtractive manufacturing of wrought material and AM, using the laser based Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process. In this study, we investigated the effect of the presence of the capillary on the fatigue strength and fatigue initiation location. Finite element (FEM) simulations were performed to validate the experimental test results. The presence of a drilled capillary in the specimens did not alter the fatigue initiation location. However, the laser based DED production process introduced roughness on the capillary surface that altered the fatigue initiation location to the capillary surface. The fatigue performance was greatly reduced when considering a printed capillary. It is concluded that the surface quality of the integrated capillary is of primary importance in order not to influence the structural integrity of the component to be monitored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

6114 KiB  
Article
Multiphysics Simulation of Low-Amplitude Acoustic Wave Detection by Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors Validated by In-Situ AE-Fatigue Experiment
by Md Yeasin Bhuiyan and Victor Giurgiutiu
Materials 2017, 10(8), 962; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10080962 - 17 Aug 2017
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5506
Abstract
Piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are commonly used for detecting Lamb waves for structural health monitoring application. However, in most applications of active sensing, the signals are of high-amplitude and easy to detect. In this article, we have shown a new avenue of [...] Read more.
Piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are commonly used for detecting Lamb waves for structural health monitoring application. However, in most applications of active sensing, the signals are of high-amplitude and easy to detect. In this article, we have shown a new avenue of using the PWAS transducer for detecting the low-amplitude fatigue-crack related acoustic emission (AE) signals. Multiphysics finite element (FE) simulations were performed with two PWAS transducers bonded to the structure. Various configurations of the sensors were studied by using the simulations. One PWAS was placed near to the fatigue-crack and the other one was placed at a certain distance from the crack. The simulated AE event was generated at the crack tip. The simulation results showed that both PWAS transducers were capable of sensing the AE signals. To validate the multiphysics simulation results, an in-situ AE-fatigue experiment was performed. Two PWAS transducers were bonded to the thin aerospace test coupon. The fatigue crack was generated in the test coupon which had produced low-amplitude acoustic waves. The low-amplitude fatigue-crack related AE signals were successfully captured by the PWAS transducers. The distance effect on the captured AE signals was also studied. It has been shown that some high-frequency contents of the AE signal have developed as they travel away from the crack. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

6986 KiB  
Article
Health State Monitoring of Bladed Machinery with Crack Growth Detection in BFG Power Plant Using an Active Frequency Shift Spectral Correction Method
by Weifang Sun, Bin Yao, Yuchao He, Binqiang Chen, Nianyin Zeng and Wangpeng He
Materials 2017, 10(8), 925; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10080925 - 09 Aug 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4608
Abstract
Power generation using waste-gas is an effective and green way to reduce the emission of the harmful blast furnace gas (BFG) in pig-iron producing industry. Condition monitoring of mechanical structures in the BFG power plant is of vital importance to guarantee their safety [...] Read more.
Power generation using waste-gas is an effective and green way to reduce the emission of the harmful blast furnace gas (BFG) in pig-iron producing industry. Condition monitoring of mechanical structures in the BFG power plant is of vital importance to guarantee their safety and efficient operations. In this paper, we describe the detection of crack growth of bladed machinery in the BFG power plant via vibration measurement combined with an enhanced spectral correction technique. This technique enables high-precision identification of amplitude, frequency, and phase information (the harmonic information) belonging to deterministic harmonic components within the vibration signals. Rather than deriving all harmonic information using neighboring spectral bins in the fast Fourier transform spectrum, this proposed active frequency shift spectral correction method makes use of some interpolated Fourier spectral bins and has a better noise-resisting capacity. We demonstrate that the identified harmonic information via the proposed method is of suppressed numerical error when the same level of noises is presented in the vibration signal, even in comparison with a Hanning-window-based correction method. With the proposed method, we investigated vibration signals collected from a centrifugal compressor. Spectral information of harmonic tones, related to the fundamental working frequency of the centrifugal compressor, is corrected. The extracted spectral information indicates the ongoing development of an impeller blade crack that occurred in the centrifugal compressor. This method proves to be a promising alternative to identify blade cracks at early stages. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

2675 KiB  
Article
Output-Based Structural Damage Detection by Using Correlation Analysis Together with Transmissibility
by Yun-Lai Zhou, Hongyou Cao, Quanmin Liu and Magd Abdel Wahab
Materials 2017, 10(8), 866; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10080866 - 27 Jul 2017
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4097
Abstract
Output-based structural damage detection is becoming increasingly appealing due to its potential in real engineering applications without any restriction regarding excitation measurements. A new transmissibility-based damage detection approach is presented in this study by combining transmissibility with correlation analysis in order to strengthen [...] Read more.
Output-based structural damage detection is becoming increasingly appealing due to its potential in real engineering applications without any restriction regarding excitation measurements. A new transmissibility-based damage detection approach is presented in this study by combining transmissibility with correlation analysis in order to strengthen its performance in discriminating damaged from undamaged scenarios. From this perspective, damage detection strategies are hereafter established by constructing damage-sensitive indicators from a derived transmissibility. A cantilever beam is numerically analyzed to verify the feasibility of the proposed damage detection procedure, and an ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) benchmark is henceforth used in the validation for its application in engineering structures. The results of both studies reveal a good performance of the proposed methodology in identifying damaged states from intact states. The comparison between the proposed indicator and the existing indicator also affirms its applicability in damage detection, which might be adopted in further structural health monitoring systems as a discrimination criterion. This study contributed an alternative criterion for transmissibility-based damage detection in addition to the conventional ones. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

1700 KiB  
Article
Interaction of Shear and Rayleigh–Lamb Waves with Notches and Voids in Plate Waveguides
by Annamaria Pau and Dimitra V. Achillopoulou
Materials 2017, 10(7), 841; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070841 - 21 Jul 2017
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3786
Abstract
This paper investigates the interaction of different shear- and Rayleigh–Lamb-guided waves in plates with a discontinuity such as a notch or an internal void. The problem was solved numerically using a finite element model and by exploiting an analytical solution obtainable for the [...] Read more.
This paper investigates the interaction of different shear- and Rayleigh–Lamb-guided waves in plates with a discontinuity such as a notch or an internal void. The problem was solved numerically using a finite element model and by exploiting an analytical solution obtainable for the double sharp changes of the cross-section that served as a reference. We aimed to elucidate the relation between the size and shape of the discontinuity and the reflection and transmission coefficients of the scattered field. Different sizes and profiles of the discontinuity were considered, with the shapes ranging from step changes of the height to ellipses, both symmetric and nonsymmetric. Regimes related to low and high values of the product frequency multiplied by the height of the plate were investigated. These showed how the mode conversion was related to the symmetry between the incident mode and the discontinuity, and to the actual existence of multiple propagating modes. The analysis presented was motivated by the need to set up procedures that exploit propagating waves not only to detect the presence of a notch, but also to characterize its size and shape. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18947 KiB  
Article
An Advanced Multi-Sensor Acousto-Ultrasonic Structural Health Monitoring System: Development and Aerospace Demonstration
by Joel Smithard, Nik Rajic, Stephen Van der Velden, Patrick Norman, Cedric Rosalie, Steve Galea, Hanfei Mei, Bin Lin and Victor Giurgiutiu
Materials 2017, 10(7), 832; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070832 - 20 Jul 2017
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5186
Abstract
A key longstanding objective of the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) research community is to enable the embedment of SHM systems in high value assets like aircraft to provide on-demand damage detection and evaluation. As against traditional non-destructive inspection hardware, embedded SHM systems must [...] Read more.
A key longstanding objective of the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) research community is to enable the embedment of SHM systems in high value assets like aircraft to provide on-demand damage detection and evaluation. As against traditional non-destructive inspection hardware, embedded SHM systems must be compact, lightweight, low-power and sufficiently robust to survive exposure to severe in-flight operating conditions. Typical Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems can be bulky, costly and are often inflexible in their configuration and/or scalability, which militates against in-service deployment. Advances in electronics have resulted in ever smaller, cheaper and more reliable components that facilitate the development of compact and robust embedded SHM systems, including for Acousto-Ultrasonics (AU), a guided plate-wave inspection modality that has attracted strong interest due mainly to its capacity to furnish wide-area diagnostic coverage with a relatively low sensor density. This article provides a detailed description of the development, testing and demonstration of a new AU interrogation system called the Acousto Ultrasonic Structural health monitoring Array Module+ (AUSAM+). This system provides independent actuation and sensing on four Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensor (PWAS) elements with further sensing on four Positive Intrinsic Negative (PIN) photodiodes for intensity-based interrogation of Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG). The paper details the development of a novel piezoelectric excitation amplifier, which, in conjunction with flexible acquisition-system architecture, seamlessly provides electromechanical impedance spectroscopy for PWAS diagnostics over the full instrument bandwidth of 50 KHz–5 MHz. The AUSAM+ functionality is accessed via a simple hardware object providing a myriad of custom software interfaces that can be adapted to suit the specific requirements of each individual application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

4075 KiB  
Article
Simulations on Monitoring and Evaluation of Plasticity-Driven Material Damage Based on Second Harmonic of S0 Mode Lamb Waves in Metallic Plates
by Xiaoqiang Sun, Xuyang Liu, Yaolu Liu, Ning Hu, Youxuan Zhao, Xiangyan Ding, Shiwei Qin, Jianyu Zhang, Jun Zhang, Feng Liu and Shaoyun Fu
Materials 2017, 10(7), 827; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070827 - 19 Jul 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4842
Abstract
In this study, a numerical approach—the discontinuous Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin-Eshelby Method (MLPGEM)—was adopted to simulate and measure material plasticity in an Al 7075-T651 plate. The plate was modeled in two dimensions by assemblies of small particles that interact with each other through bonding [...] Read more.
In this study, a numerical approach—the discontinuous Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin-Eshelby Method (MLPGEM)—was adopted to simulate and measure material plasticity in an Al 7075-T651 plate. The plate was modeled in two dimensions by assemblies of small particles that interact with each other through bonding stiffness. The material plasticity of the model loaded to produce different levels of strain is evaluated with the Lamb waves of S0 mode. A tone burst at the center frequency of 200 kHz was used as excitation. Second-order nonlinear wave was extracted from the spectrogram of a signal receiving point. Tensile-driven plastic deformation and cumulative second harmonic generation of S0 mode were observed in the simulation. Simulated measurement of the acoustic nonlinearity increased monotonically with the level of tensile-driven plastic strain captured by MLPGEM, whereas achieving this state by other numerical methods is comparatively more difficult. This result indicates that the second harmonics of S0 mode can be employed to monitor and evaluate the material or structural early-stage damage induced by plasticity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

5012 KiB  
Article
Strain Wave Acquisition by a Fiber Optic Coherent Sensor for Impact Monitoring
by Claudio Sbarufatti, Alessio Beligni, Andrea Gilioli, Maddalena Ferrario, Marco Mattarei, Mario Martinelli and Marco Giglio
Materials 2017, 10(7), 794; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070794 - 13 Jul 2017
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4607
Abstract
A novel fiber optic sensing technology for high frequency dynamics detection is proposed in this paper, specifically tailored for structural health monitoring applications based on strain wave analysis, for both passive impact identification and active Lamb wave monitoring. The sensing solution relies on [...] Read more.
A novel fiber optic sensing technology for high frequency dynamics detection is proposed in this paper, specifically tailored for structural health monitoring applications based on strain wave analysis, for both passive impact identification and active Lamb wave monitoring. The sensing solution relies on a fiber optic-based interferometric architecture associated to an innovative coherent detection scheme, which retrieves in a completely passive way the high-frequency phase information of the received optical signal. The sensing fiber can be arranged into different layouts, depending on the requirement of the specific application, in order to enhance the sensor sensitivity while still ensuring a limited gauge length if punctual measures are required. For active Lamb wave monitoring, this results in a sensing fiber arranged in multiple loops glued on an aluminum thin panel in order to increase the phase signal only in correspondence to the sensing points of interest. Instead, for passive impact identification, the required sensitivity is guaranteed by simply exploiting a longer gauge length glued to the structure. The fiber optic coherent (FOC) sensor is exploited to detect the strain waves emitted by a piezoelectric transducer placed on the aluminum panel or generated by an impulse hammer, respectively. The FOC sensor measurements have been compared with both a numerical model based on Finite Elements and traditional piezoelectric sensors, confirming a good agreement between experimental and simulated results for both active and passive impact monitoring scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

6511 KiB  
Article
An Intelligent Gear Fault Diagnosis Methodology Using a Complex Wavelet Enhanced Convolutional Neural Network
by Weifang Sun, Bin Yao, Nianyin Zeng, Binqiang Chen, Yuchao He, Xincheng Cao and Wangpeng He
Materials 2017, 10(7), 790; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070790 - 12 Jul 2017
Cited by 113 | Viewed by 7059
Abstract
As a typical example of large and complex mechanical systems, rotating machinery is prone to diversified sorts of mechanical faults. Among these faults, one of the prominent causes of malfunction is generated in gear transmission chains. Although they can be collected via vibration [...] Read more.
As a typical example of large and complex mechanical systems, rotating machinery is prone to diversified sorts of mechanical faults. Among these faults, one of the prominent causes of malfunction is generated in gear transmission chains. Although they can be collected via vibration signals, the fault signatures are always submerged in overwhelming interfering contents. Therefore, identifying the critical fault’s characteristic signal is far from an easy task. In order to improve the recognition accuracy of a fault’s characteristic signal, a novel intelligent fault diagnosis method is presented. In this method, a dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) is employed to acquire the multiscale signal’s features. In addition, a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach is utilized to automatically recognise a fault feature from the multiscale signal features. The experiment results of the recognition for gear faults show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, especially in the gear’s weak fault features. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

7251 KiB  
Article
Experimental and Computational Studies on the Scattering of an Edge-Guided Wave by a Hidden Crack on a Racecourse Shaped Hole
by Benjamin Steven Vien, Louis Raymond Francis Rose and Wing Kong Chiu
Materials 2017, 10(7), 732; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070732 - 01 Jul 2017
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4266
Abstract
Reliable and quantitative non-destructive evaluation for small fatigue cracks, in particular those in hard-to-inspect locations, is a challenging problem. Guided waves are advantageous for structural health monitoring due to their slow geometrical decay of amplitude with propagating distance, which is ideal for rapid [...] Read more.
Reliable and quantitative non-destructive evaluation for small fatigue cracks, in particular those in hard-to-inspect locations, is a challenging problem. Guided waves are advantageous for structural health monitoring due to their slow geometrical decay of amplitude with propagating distance, which is ideal for rapid wide-area inspection. This paper presents a 3D laser vibrometry experimental and finite element analysis of the interaction between an edge-guided wave and a small through-thickness hidden edge crack on a racecourse shaped hole that occurs, in practice, as a fuel vent hole. A piezoelectric transducer is bonded on the straight edge of the hole to generate the incident wave. The excitation signal consists of a 5.5 cycle Hann-windowed tone burst of centre frequency 220 kHz, which is below the cut-off frequency for the first order Lamb wave modes (SH1). Two-dimensional fast Fourier transformation (2D FFT) is applied to the incident and scattered wave field along radial lines emanating from the crack mouth, so as to identify the wave modes and determine their angular variation and amplitude. It is shown experimentally and computationally that mid-plane symmetric edge waves can travel around the hole’s edge to detect a hidden crack. Furthermore, the scattered wave field due to a small crack length, a, (compared to the wavelength λ of the incident wave) is shown to be equivalent to a point source consisting of a particular combination of body-force doublets. It is found that the amplitude of the scattered field increases quadratically as a function of a/λ, whereas the scattered wave pattern is independent of crack length for small cracks a << λ. This study of the forward scattering problem from a known crack size provides a useful guide for the inverse problem of hidden crack detection and sizing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

3301 KiB  
Article
Characterizing the Conductivity and Enhancing the Piezoresistivity of Carbon Nanotube-Polymeric Thin Films
by Yingjun Zhao, Martin Schagerl, Christoph Viechtbauer and Kenneth J. Loh
Materials 2017, 10(7), 724; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070724 - 29 Jun 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4531
Abstract
The concept of lightweight design is widely employed for designing and constructing aerospace structures that can sustain extreme loads while also being fuel-efficient. Popular lightweight materials such as aluminum alloy and fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) possess outstanding mechanical properties, but their structural integrity requires [...] Read more.
The concept of lightweight design is widely employed for designing and constructing aerospace structures that can sustain extreme loads while also being fuel-efficient. Popular lightweight materials such as aluminum alloy and fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) possess outstanding mechanical properties, but their structural integrity requires constant assessment to ensure structural safety. Next-generation structural health monitoring systems for aerospace structures should be lightweight and integrated with the structure itself. In this study, a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-based polymer paint was developed to detect distributed damage in lightweight structures. The thin film’s electromechanical properties were characterized via cyclic loading tests. Moreover, the thin film’s bulk conductivity was characterized by finite element modeling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

9155 KiB  
Article
Early Damage Detection in Composites during Fabrication and Mechanical Testing
by Neha Chandarana, Daniel Martinez Sanchez, Constantinos Soutis and Matthieu Gresil
Materials 2017, 10(7), 685; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070685 - 22 Jun 2017
Cited by 48 | Viewed by 7534
Abstract
Fully integrated monitoring systems have shown promise in improving confidence in composite materials while reducing lifecycle costs. A distributed optical fibre sensor is embedded in a fibre reinforced composite laminate, to give three sensing regions at different levels through-the-thickness of the plate. This [...] Read more.
Fully integrated monitoring systems have shown promise in improving confidence in composite materials while reducing lifecycle costs. A distributed optical fibre sensor is embedded in a fibre reinforced composite laminate, to give three sensing regions at different levels through-the-thickness of the plate. This study follows the resin infusion process during fabrication of the composite, monitoring the development of strain in-situ and in real time, and to gain better understanding of the resin rheology during curing. Piezoelectric wafer active sensors and electrical strain gauges are bonded to the plate after fabrication. This is followed by progressive loading/unloading cycles of mechanical four point bending. The strain values obtained from the optical fibre are in good agreement with strain data collected by surface mounted strain gauges, while the sensing regions clearly indicate the development of compressive, neutral, and tensile strain. Acoustic emission event detection suggests the formation of matrix (resin) cracks, with measured damage event amplitudes in agreement with values reported in published literature on the subject. The Felicity ratio for each subsequent loading cycle is calculated to track the progression of damage in the material. The methodology developed here can be used to follow the full life cycle of a composite structure, from manufacture to end-of-life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

4118 KiB  
Article
Incipient Fault Detection for Rolling Element Bearings under Varying Speed Conditions
by Lang Xue, Naipeng Li, Yaguo Lei and Ningbo Li
Materials 2017, 10(6), 675; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060675 - 20 Jun 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3945
Abstract
Varying speed conditions bring a huge challenge to incipient fault detection of rolling element bearings because both the change of speed and faults could lead to the amplitude fluctuation of vibration signals. Effective detection methods need to be developed to eliminate the influence [...] Read more.
Varying speed conditions bring a huge challenge to incipient fault detection of rolling element bearings because both the change of speed and faults could lead to the amplitude fluctuation of vibration signals. Effective detection methods need to be developed to eliminate the influence of speed variation. This paper proposes an incipient fault detection method for bearings under varying speed conditions. Firstly, relative residual (RR) features are extracted, which are insensitive to the varying speed conditions and are able to reflect the degradation trend of bearings. Then, a health indicator named selected negative log-likelihood probability (SNLLP) is constructed to fuse a feature set including RR features and non-dimensional features. Finally, based on the constructed SNLLP health indicator, a novel alarm trigger mechanism is designed to detect the incipient fault. The proposed method is demonstrated using vibration signals from bearing tests and industrial wind turbines. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for incipient fault detection of rolling element bearings under varying speed conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

6030 KiB  
Article
Crack Identification in CFRP Laminated Beams Using Multi-Resolution Modal Teager–Kaiser Energy under Noisy Environments
by Wei Xu, Maosen Cao, Keqin Ding, Maciej Radzieński and Wiesław Ostachowicz
Materials 2017, 10(6), 656; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060656 - 15 Jun 2017
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4109
Abstract
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates are increasingly used in the aerospace and civil engineering fields. Identifying cracks in carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminated beam components is of considerable significance for ensuring the integrity and safety of the whole structures. With the development of [...] Read more.
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates are increasingly used in the aerospace and civil engineering fields. Identifying cracks in carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminated beam components is of considerable significance for ensuring the integrity and safety of the whole structures. With the development of high-resolution measurement technologies, mode-shape-based crack identification in such laminated beam components has become an active research focus. Despite its sensitivity to cracks, however, this method is susceptible to noise. To address this deficiency, this study proposes a new concept of multi-resolution modal Teager–Kaiser energy, which is the Teager–Kaiser energy of a mode shape represented in multi-resolution, for identifying cracks in carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminated beams. The efficacy of this concept is analytically demonstrated by identifying cracks in Timoshenko beams with general boundary conditions; and its applicability is validated by diagnosing cracks in a carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminated beam, whose mode shapes are precisely acquired via non-contact measurement using a scanning laser vibrometer. The analytical and experimental results show that multi-resolution modal Teager–Kaiser energy is capable of designating the presence and location of cracks in these beams under noisy environments. This proposed method holds promise for developing crack identification systems for carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

5359 KiB  
Article
Lamb Wave-Based Structural Health Monitoring on Composite Bolted Joints under Tensile Load
by Bin Yang, Fu-Zhen Xuan, Yanxun Xiang, Dan Li, Wujun Zhu, Xiaojun Tang, Jichao Xu, Kang Yang and Chengqiang Luo
Materials 2017, 10(6), 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060652 - 14 Jun 2017
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 6815
Abstract
Online and offline monitoring of composite bolted joints under tensile load were investigated using piezoelectric transducers. The relationships between Lamb wave signals, pre-tightening force, the applied tensile load, as well as the failure modes were investigated. Results indicated that S0/A0 wave [...] Read more.
Online and offline monitoring of composite bolted joints under tensile load were investigated using piezoelectric transducers. The relationships between Lamb wave signals, pre-tightening force, the applied tensile load, as well as the failure modes were investigated. Results indicated that S0/A0 wave amplitudes decrease with the increasing of load. Relationships between damage features and S0/A0 mode were built based on the finite element (FE) simulation and experimental results. The possibility of application of Lamb wave-based structure health monitoring in bolted joint-like composite structures was thus achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

5368 KiB  
Article
Lamb Wave Damage Quantification Using GA-Based LS-SVM
by Fuqiang Sun, Ning Wang, Jingjing He, Xuefei Guan and Jinsong Yang
Materials 2017, 10(6), 648; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060648 - 12 Jun 2017
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 4789
Abstract
Lamb waves have been reported to be an efficient tool for non-destructive evaluations (NDE) for various application scenarios. However, accurate and reliable damage quantification using the Lamb wave method is still a practical challenge, due to the complex underlying mechanism of Lamb wave [...] Read more.
Lamb waves have been reported to be an efficient tool for non-destructive evaluations (NDE) for various application scenarios. However, accurate and reliable damage quantification using the Lamb wave method is still a practical challenge, due to the complex underlying mechanism of Lamb wave propagation and damage detection. This paper presents a Lamb wave damage quantification method using a least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) and a genetic algorithm (GA). Three damage sensitive features, namely, normalized amplitude, phase change, and correlation coefficient, were proposed to describe changes of Lamb wave characteristics caused by damage. In view of commonly used data-driven methods, the GA-based LS-SVM model using the proposed three damage sensitive features was implemented to evaluate the crack size. The GA method was adopted to optimize the model parameters. The results of GA-based LS-SVM were validated using coupon test data and lap joint component test data with naturally developed fatigue cracks. Cases of different loading and manufacturer were also included to further verify the robustness of the proposed method for crack quantification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

21270 KiB  
Article
Non-Destructive Inspection of Impact Damage in Composite Aircraft Panels by Ultrasonic Guided Waves and Statistical Processing
by Margherita Capriotti, Hyungsuk E. Kim, Francesco Lanza di Scalea and Hyonny Kim
Materials 2017, 10(6), 616; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060616 - 04 Jun 2017
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 5730
Abstract
This paper discusses a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique for the detection of damage in composite aircraft structures following high energy wide area blunt impact (HEWABI) from ground service equipment (GSE), such as heavy cargo loaders and other heavy equipment. The test structures typically [...] Read more.
This paper discusses a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique for the detection of damage in composite aircraft structures following high energy wide area blunt impact (HEWABI) from ground service equipment (GSE), such as heavy cargo loaders and other heavy equipment. The test structures typically include skin, co-cured stringers, and C-frames that are bolt-connected onto the skin with shear ties. The inspection exploits the waveguide geometry of these structures by utilizing ultrasonic guided waves and a line scan approach. Both a contact prototype and a non-contact prototype were developed and tested on realistic test panels subjected to impact in the laboratory. The results are presented in terms of receiver operating characteristic curves that show excellent probability of detection with low false alarm rates for defects located in the panel skin and stringers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

11688 KiB  
Article
Investigation on Characteristic Variation of the FBG Spectrum with Crack Propagation in Aluminum Plate Structures
by Bo Jin, Weifang Zhang, Meng Zhang, Feifei Ren, Wei Dai and Yanrong Wang
Materials 2017, 10(6), 588; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060588 - 27 May 2017
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4378
Abstract
In order to monitor the crack tip propagation of aluminum alloy, this study investigates the variation of the spectrum characteristics of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG), combined with an analysis of the spectrum simulation. The results identify the location of the subordinate peak [...] Read more.
In order to monitor the crack tip propagation of aluminum alloy, this study investigates the variation of the spectrum characteristics of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG), combined with an analysis of the spectrum simulation. The results identify the location of the subordinate peak as significantly associated with the strain distribution along the grating, corresponding to the different plastic zones ahead of the crack tip with various crack lengths. FBG sensors could observe monotonic and cyclic plastic zones ahead of the crack tip, with the quadratic strain distribution along the grating at the crack tip-FBG distance of 1.2 and 0.7 mm, respectively. FBG sensors could examine the process zones ahead of the crack tip with the cubic strain distribution along the grating at the crack tip-FBG distance of 0.5 mm. The spectrum oscillation occurs as the crack approaches the FBG where the highly heterogeneous strain is distributed. Another idea is to use a finite element method (FEM), together with a T-matrix method, to analyze the reflection intensity spectra of FBG sensors for various crack sizes. The described crack propagation detection system may apply in structural health monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

8191 KiB  
Article
Fault Diagnosis for Rolling Bearings under Variable Conditions Based on Visual Cognition
by Yujie Cheng, Bo Zhou, Chen Lu and Chao Yang
Materials 2017, 10(6), 582; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060582 - 25 May 2017
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4127
Abstract
Fault diagnosis for rolling bearings has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However, few studies have focused on fault diagnosis for rolling bearings under variable conditions. This paper introduces a fault diagnosis method for rolling bearings under variable conditions based on visual cognition. [...] Read more.
Fault diagnosis for rolling bearings has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However, few studies have focused on fault diagnosis for rolling bearings under variable conditions. This paper introduces a fault diagnosis method for rolling bearings under variable conditions based on visual cognition. The proposed method includes the following steps. First, the vibration signal data are transformed into a recurrence plot (RP), which is a two-dimensional image. Then, inspired by the visual invariance characteristic of the human visual system (HVS), we utilize speed up robust feature to extract fault features from the two-dimensional RP and generate a 64-dimensional feature vector, which is invariant to image translation, rotation, scaling variation, etc. Third, based on the manifold perception characteristic of HVS, isometric mapping, a manifold learning method that can reflect the intrinsic manifold embedded in the high-dimensional space, is employed to obtain a low-dimensional feature vector. Finally, a classical classification method, support vector machine, is utilized to realize fault diagnosis. Verification data were collected from Case Western Reserve University Bearing Data Center, and the experimental result indicates that the proposed fault diagnosis method based on visual cognition is highly effective for rolling bearings under variable conditions, thus providing a promising approach from the cognitive computing field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

2340 KiB  
Article
Bearing Fault Detection Based on Empirical Wavelet Transform and Correlated Kurtosis by Acoustic Emission
by Zheyu Gao, Jing Lin, Xiufeng Wang and Xiaoqiang Xu
Materials 2017, 10(6), 571; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10060571 - 24 May 2017
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4842
Abstract
Rolling bearings are widely used in rotating equipment. Detection of bearing faults is of great importance to guarantee safe operation of mechanical systems. Acoustic emission (AE), as one of the bearing monitoring technologies, is sensitive to weak signals and performs well in detecting [...] Read more.
Rolling bearings are widely used in rotating equipment. Detection of bearing faults is of great importance to guarantee safe operation of mechanical systems. Acoustic emission (AE), as one of the bearing monitoring technologies, is sensitive to weak signals and performs well in detecting incipient faults. Therefore, AE is widely used in monitoring the operating status of rolling bearing. This paper utilizes Empirical Wavelet Transform (EWT) to decompose AE signals into mono-components adaptively followed by calculation of the correlated kurtosis (CK) at certain time intervals of these components. By comparing these CK values, the resonant frequency of the rolling bearing can be determined. Then the fault characteristic frequencies are found by spectrum envelope. Both simulation signal and rolling bearing AE signals are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the new method performs well in identifying bearing fault frequency under strong background noise. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

3505 KiB  
Article
The Feasibility of Structural Health Monitoring Using the Fundamental Shear Horizontal Guided Wave in a Thin Aluminum Plate
by Jorge Franklin Mansur Rodrigues Filho, Nicolas Tremblay, Gláucio Soares da Fonseca and Pierre Belanger
Materials 2017, 10(5), 551; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10050551 - 19 May 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4338
Abstract
Structural health monitoring (SHM) is emerging as an essential tool for constant monitoring of safety-critical engineering components. Ultrasonic guided waves stand out because of their ability to propagate over long distances and because they can offer good estimates of location, severity, and type [...] Read more.
Structural health monitoring (SHM) is emerging as an essential tool for constant monitoring of safety-critical engineering components. Ultrasonic guided waves stand out because of their ability to propagate over long distances and because they can offer good estimates of location, severity, and type of damage. The unique properties of the fundamental shear horizontal guided wave (SH0) mode have recently generated great interest among the SHM community. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of omnidirectional SH0 SHM in a thin aluminum plate using a three-transducer sparse array. Descriptions of the transducer, the finite element model, and the imaging algorithm are presented. The image localization maps show a good agreement between the simulations and experimental results. The SH0 SHM method proposed in this paper is shown to have a high resolution and to be able to locate defects within 5% of the true location. The short input signal as well the non-dispersive nature of SH0 leads to high resolution in the reconstructed images. The defect diameter estimated using the full width at half maximum was 10 mm or twice the size of the true diameter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

8135 KiB  
Article
Characterizing Hypervelocity Impact (HVI)-Induced Pitting Damage Using Active Guided Ultrasonic Waves: From Linear to Nonlinear
by Menglong Liu, Kai Wang, Cliff J. Lissenden, Qiang Wang, Qingming Zhang, Renrong Long, Zhongqing Su and Fangsen Cui
Materials 2017, 10(5), 547; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10050547 - 18 May 2017
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4921
Abstract
Hypervelocity impact (HVI), ubiquitous in low Earth orbit with an impacting velocity in excess of 1 km/s, poses an immense threat to the safety of orbiting spacecraft. Upon penetration of the outer shielding layer of a typical two-layer shielding system, the shattered projectile, [...] Read more.
Hypervelocity impact (HVI), ubiquitous in low Earth orbit with an impacting velocity in excess of 1 km/s, poses an immense threat to the safety of orbiting spacecraft. Upon penetration of the outer shielding layer of a typical two-layer shielding system, the shattered projectile, together with the jetted materials of the outer shielding material, subsequently impinge the inner shielding layer, to which pitting damage is introduced. The pitting damage includes numerous craters and cracks disorderedly scattered over a wide region. Targeting the quantitative evaluation of this sort of damage (multitudinous damage within a singular inspection region), a characterization strategy, associating linear with nonlinear features of guided ultrasonic waves, is developed. Linear-wise, changes in the signal features in the time domain (e.g., time-of-flight and energy dissipation) are extracted, for detecting gross damage whose characteristic dimensions are comparable to the wavelength of the probing wave; nonlinear-wise, changes in the signal features in the frequency domain (e.g., second harmonic generation), which are proven to be more sensitive than their linear counterparts to small-scale damage, are explored to characterize HVI-induced pitting damage scattered in the inner layer. A numerical simulation, supplemented with experimental validation, quantitatively reveals the accumulation of nonlinearity of the guided waves when the waves traverse the pitting damage, based on which linear and nonlinear damage indices are proposed. A path-based rapid imaging algorithm, in conjunction with the use of the developed linear and nonlinear indices, is developed, whereby the HVI-induced pitting damage is characterized in images in terms of the probability of occurrence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

8001 KiB  
Article
On-Line Multi-Damage Scanning Spatial-Wavenumber Filter Based Imaging Method for Aircraft Composite Structure
by Yuanqiang Ren, Lei Qiu, Shenfang Yuan and Qiao Bao
Materials 2017, 10(5), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10050519 - 11 May 2017
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4346
Abstract
Structural health monitoring (SHM) of aircraft composite structure is helpful to increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs. Due to the great effectiveness in distinguishing particular guided wave modes and identifying the propagation direction, the spatial-wavenumber filter technique has emerged as an interesting SHM [...] Read more.
Structural health monitoring (SHM) of aircraft composite structure is helpful to increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs. Due to the great effectiveness in distinguishing particular guided wave modes and identifying the propagation direction, the spatial-wavenumber filter technique has emerged as an interesting SHM topic. In this paper, a new scanning spatial-wavenumber filter (SSWF) based imaging method for multiple damages is proposed to conduct on-line monitoring of aircraft composite structures. Firstly, an on-line multi-damage SSWF is established, including the fundamental principle of SSWF for multiple damages based on a linear piezoelectric (PZT) sensor array, and a corresponding wavenumber-time imaging mechanism by using the multi-damage scattering signal. Secondly, through combining the on-line multi-damage SSWF and a PZT 2D cross-shaped array, an image-mapping method is proposed to conduct wavenumber synthesis and convert the two wavenumber-time images obtained by the PZT 2D cross-shaped array to an angle-distance image, from which the multiple damages can be directly recognized and located. In the experimental validation, both simulated multi-damage and real multi-damage introduced by repeated impacts are performed on a composite plate structure. The maximum localization error is less than 2 cm, which shows good performance of the multi-damage imaging method. Compared with the existing spatial-wavenumber filter based damage evaluation methods, the proposed method requires no more than the multi-damage scattering signal and can be performed without depending on any wavenumber modeling or measuring. Besides, this method locates multiple damages by imaging instead of the geometric method, which helps to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, it can be easily applied to on-line multi-damage monitoring of aircraft composite structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

3091 KiB  
Article
Necessary Conditions for Nonlinear Ultrasonic Modulation Generation Given a Localized Fatigue Crack in a Plate-Like Structure
by Hyung Jin Lim and Hoon Sohn
Materials 2017, 10(3), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10030248 - 28 Feb 2017
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4443
Abstract
It has been shown that nonlinear ultrasonics can be more sensitive to local incipient defects, such as a fatigue crack, than conventional linear ultrasonics. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in utilizing nonlinear ultrasonics for structural health monitoring and nondestructive testing applications. While [...] Read more.
It has been shown that nonlinear ultrasonics can be more sensitive to local incipient defects, such as a fatigue crack, than conventional linear ultrasonics. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in utilizing nonlinear ultrasonics for structural health monitoring and nondestructive testing applications. While the conditions, which are the necessary conditions that should be satisfied for the generation of nonlinear harmonic components, are extensively studied for distributed material nonlinearity, little work has been done to understand the necessary conditions at the presence of a localized nonlinear source such as a fatigue crack. In this paper, the necessary conditions of nonlinear ultrasonic modulation generation in a plate-like structure are formulated specifically for a localized nonlinear source. Then, the correctness of the formulated necessary conditions is experimentally verified using ultrasounds obtained from aluminum plates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

3610 KiB  
Article
Optimal Electrode Selection for Electrical Resistance Tomography in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites
by Luis Waldo Escalona Galvis, Paulina Diaz-Montiel and Satchi Venkataraman
Materials 2017, 10(2), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10020125 - 04 Feb 2017
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5147
Abstract
Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) offers a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique that takes advantage of the inherent electrical properties in carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites for internal damage characterization. This paper investigates a method of optimum selection of sensing configurations for delamination detection [...] Read more.
Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) offers a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique that takes advantage of the inherent electrical properties in carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites for internal damage characterization. This paper investigates a method of optimum selection of sensing configurations for delamination detection in thick cross-ply laminates using ERT. Reduction in the number of sensing locations and measurements is necessary to minimize hardware and computational effort. The present work explores the use of an effective independence (EI) measure originally proposed for sensor location optimization in experimental vibration modal analysis. The EI measure is used for selecting the minimum set of resistance measurements among all possible combinations resulting from selecting sensing electrode pairs. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is applied to obtain a spectral representation of the resistance measurements in the laminate for subsequent EI based reduction to take place. The electrical potential field in a CFRP laminate is calculated using finite element analysis (FEA) applied on models for two different laminate layouts considering a set of specified delamination sizes and locations with two different sensing arrangements. The effectiveness of the EI measure in eliminating redundant electrode pairs is demonstrated by performing inverse identification of damage using the full set and the reduced set of resistance measurements. This investigation shows that the EI measure is effective for optimally selecting the electrode pairs needed for resistance measurements in ERT based damage detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

8727 KiB  
Article
Signal Construction-Based Dispersion Compensation of Lamb Waves Considering Signal Waveform and Amplitude Spectrum Preservation
by Jian Cai, Shenfang Yuan and Tongguang Wang
Materials 2017, 10(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10010004 - 23 Dec 2016
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5620
Abstract
The results of Lamb wave identification for the aerospace structures could be easily affected by the nonlinear-dispersion characteristics. In this paper, dispersion compensation of Lamb waves is of particular concern. Compared with the similar research works on the traditional signal domain transform methods, [...] Read more.
The results of Lamb wave identification for the aerospace structures could be easily affected by the nonlinear-dispersion characteristics. In this paper, dispersion compensation of Lamb waves is of particular concern. Compared with the similar research works on the traditional signal domain transform methods, this study is based on signal construction from the viewpoint of nonlinear wavenumber linearization. Two compensation methods of linearly-dispersive signal construction (LDSC) and non-dispersive signal construction (NDSC) are proposed. Furthermore, to improve the compensation effect, the influence of the signal construction process on the other crucial signal properties, including the signal waveform and amplitude spectrum, is considered during the investigation. The linear-dispersion and non-dispersion effects are firstly analyzed. Then, after the basic signal construction principle is explored, the numerical realization of LDSC and NDSC is discussed, in which the signal waveform and amplitude spectrum preservation is especially regarded. Subsequently, associated with the delay-and-sum algorithm, LDSC or NDSC is employed for high spatial resolution damage imaging, so that the adjacent multi-damage or quantitative imaging capacity of Lamb waves can be strengthened. To verify the proposed signal construction and damage imaging methods, the experimental and numerical validation is finally arranged on the aluminum plates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring for Aerospace Applications 2017)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop