Composite materials which are widely used in the aerospace industry, are usually subjected to frequent variation of temperature. Thermal cyclic loading may induce material degradation. Considering the long-term service of aircraft composites and the importance of safety in the aircraft industry, even a little damage that may be accumulative via thermal fatigue is often of great concern. Therefore, there is a demand to develop non-destructive approaches to evaluate thermal fatigue damage in an early stage. Due to the sensitivity of acoustic nonlinearity to micro-damage, the nonlinear ultrasonic technique has been explored as a promising tool for early detection of micro-damage. This paper investigates an experimental scheme for characterizing thermal fatigue damage in composite laminates using second harmonic Lamb waves. The present results show a monotonic increase of acoustic nonlinearity with respect to thermal fatigue cycles. The experimental observation of the correlation between the acoustic nonlinearity and thermal fatigue cycles in carbon/epoxy laminates verifies that nonlinear Lamb waves can be used to assess thermal fatigue damage rendering improved sensitivity over conventional linear feature based non-destructive evaluation techniques. Velocity and attenuation based ultrasonic studies are carried out for comparison with the nonlinear ultrasonic approach and it is found that nonlinear acoustic parameters are more promising indicators of thermal fatigue damage than linear ones.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/21/8/085019/pdf

Detection of thermal fatigue in composites by second harmonic Lamb waves

Rock bolts have been widely used as rock reinforcing members in underground coal mine roadways and tunnels. Failures of rock bolts occur as a result of overloading, corrosion, seismic burst and bad grouting, leading to catastrophic economic and personnel losses. Monitoring the health condition of the rock bolts plays an important role in ensuring the safe operation of underground mines. This work presents a brief introduction on the types of rock bolts followed by a comprehensive review of rock bolt monitoring using smart sensors. Smart sensors that are used to assess rock bolt integrity are reviewed to provide a firm perception of the application of smart sensors for enhanced performance and reliability of rock bolts. The most widely used smart sensors for rock bolt monitoring are the piezoelectric sensors and the fiber optic sensors. The methodologies and principles of these smart sensors are reviewed from the point of view of rock bolt integrity monitoring. The applications of smart sensors in monitoring the critical status of rock bolts, such as the axial force, corrosion occurrence, grout quality and resin delamination, are highlighted. In addition, several prototypes or commercially available smart rock bolt devices are also introduced.

A Review of Rock Bolt Monitoring Using Smart Sensors

The electromechanical (EM) impedance technique using piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers for structural health monitoring (SHM) has attracted considerable attention in various engineering fields. In the conventional EM impedance technique, the EM admittance of a PZT transducer is used as a damage indicator. Statistical analysis methods such as root mean square deviation (RMSD) have been employed to associate the damage level with the changes in the EM admittance signatures, but it is difficult to determine the location of damage using such methods. This paper proposes a new approach by dividing the large frequency (30–400 kHz) range into sub-frequency intervals and calculating their respective RMSD values. The RMSD of the sub-frequency intervals (RMSD-S) will be used to study the severity and location of damage. An experiment is carried out on a real size concrete structure subjected to artificial damage. It is observed that damage close to the PZT changes the high frequency range RMSD-S significantly, while the damage far away from the PZT changes the RMSD-S in the low frequency range significantly. The relationship between the frequency range and the PZT sensing region is also presented. Finally, a damage identification scheme is proposed to estimate the location and severity of damage in concrete structures.

Sub-frequency interval approach in electromechanical impedance technique for concrete structure health monitoring.

Rock bolts are the devices that used to reinforce the rock masses in mining tunnels and underground excavation structures. The loading level of the rock bolt indicates the reinforcing efficiency and is able to ensure safe underground operation by giving warnings to the underground miners prior to any accidents. Therefore, it is very important to monitor the load level of the rock bolts. In this short communication, we propose a smart anchor plate, a simple but effective device that uses fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) type optic sensor, to monitor the load level of the rock bolt. Instead of measuring the stress/strain on the rock bolt, which adds more complexity, the proposed method monitors the rock bolt load by measuring the load experience on the rock bolt anchor plate. Such a configuration has the advantages of simple structure and flexible implementation. In experimental observation, the FBG instrumented anchor plate is able to observe the load of the plate with good repeatability. This test will lead to further in-depth studies involving finite element analysis as well as more complex applications.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-665X/aa6ae8/pdf

Y. Cui

Papers

Numerical simulation of attenuation and group velocity of guided ultrasonic wave in grouted rock bolts

A new approach for field instrumentation in grouted rock bolt monitoring using guided ultrasonic waves