The deployment cost of the structural health monitoring (SHM) system is the major argument against the more widespread use of the structural health monitoring techniques. Optimization of sensor pla...

Optimization of sensor placement for structural health monitoring: a review:

There is a need to better understand the effect of temperature changes on the response of ultrasonic guided-wave pitch-catch systems used for structural health monitoring. A model is proposed to account for all relevant temperature-dependent parameters of a pitch-catch system on an isotropic plate, including the actuator-plate and plate-sensor interactions through shear-lag behavior, the piezoelectric and dielectric permittivity properties of the transducers, and the Lamb wave dispersion properties of the substrate plate. The model is used to predict the S(0) and A(0) response spectra in aluminum plates for the temperature range of -40-+60 degrees C, which accounts for normal aircraft operations. The transducers examined are monolithic PZT-5A [PZT denotes Pb(Zr-Ti)O3] patches and flexible macrofiber composite type P1 patches. The study shows substantial changes in Lamb wave amplitude response caused solely by temperature excursions. It is also shown that, for the transducers considered, the response amplitude changes follow two opposite trends below and above ambient temperature (20 degrees C), respectively. These results can provide a basis for the compensation of temperature effects in guided-wave damage detection systems.

Temperature effects in ultrasonic Lamb wave structural health monitoring systems.

An approach based upon the employment of piezoelectric transducer rosettes is proposed for passive damage or impact location in anisotropic or geometrically complex structures. The rosettes are comprised of rectangular macro-fiber composite (MFC) transducers which exhibit a highly directive response to ultrasonic guided waves. The MFC response to flexural (A0) motion is decomposed into axial and transverse sensitivity factors, which allow extraction of the direction of an incoming wave using rosette principles. The wave source location in a plane is then simply determined by intersecting the wave directions detected by two rosettes. The rosette approach is applicable to anisotropic or geometrically complex structures where the conventional time-of-flight source location is challenging due to the direction-dependent wave velocity. The performance of the rosettes for source location is validated through pencil-lead breaks performed on an aluminum plate, an anisotropic CFRP laminate and a complex CFRP-honeycomb sandwich panel.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/16/4/064/pdf

Macro-fiber composite piezoelectric rosettes for acoustic source location in complex structures

A semi-analytical finite element formulation for modeling stress wave propagation in axisymmetric damped waveguides

Piezoelectric macro fiber composites (MFCs) have been implemented as actuators into an active composite wing. The goal of the project was the design of a wing for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a thin profile and integrated roll control with piezoelectric elements. The design and its optimization were based on a fully coupled structural fluid dynamics model that implemented constraints from available materials and manufacturing. A scaled prototype wing was manufactured. The design model was validated with static and preliminary dynamic tests of the prototype wing. The qualitative agreement between the numerical model and experiments was good. Dynamic tests were also performed on a sandwich wing of the same size with conventional aileron control for comparison. Even though the roll moment generated by the active wing was lower, it proved sufficient for the intended roll control of the UAV. The active wing with piezoelectric flight control constitutes one of the first examples where such a design has been optimized and the numerical model has been validated in experiments.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/18/3/035010/pdf

Active wing design with integrated flight control using piezoelectric macro fiber composites

This article deals with the monitoring of the composite wing skin-to-spar joint in unmanned aerial vehicles using ultrasonic guided waves The study investigates simulated wing skin-to-spar joints with two different types of bond defects, namely poorly cured adhesive and disbonded interfaces The bond-sensitive feature considered is the ultrasonic strength of transmission through the joints The dispersive wave propagation problem is studied numerically by a semi-analytical finite element method that accounts for viscoelastic damping, and experimentally by ultrasonic testing that uses highly durable, flexible macro fiber composite transducers The discrete wavelet transform is also employed to de-noise and compress the ultrasonic measurements Both numerical and experimental tests confirm that the ultrasonic strength of transmission increases across the defected bonds

Francesco Lanza Discalea

Papers

Health Monitoring of UAV Wing Skin-to-spar Joints using Guided Waves and Macro Fiber Composite Transducers: