• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.147-165
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• 2010

Impact damage detection in composite structures has gained a considerable interest in many engineering areas. The capability to detect damage at the early stages reduces any risk of catastrophic failure. This paper compares two advanced signal processing methods for impact location in composite aircraft structures. The first method is based on a modified triangulation procedure and Genetic Algorithms whereas the second technique applies Artificial Neural Networks. A series of impacts is performed experimentally on a composite aircraft wing-box structure instrumented with low-profile, bonded piezoceramic sensors. The strain data are used for learning in the Neural Network approach. The triangulation procedure utilises the same data to establish impact velocities for various angles of strain wave propagation. The study demonstrates that both approaches are capable of good impact location estimates in this complex structure.

• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.195-200
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• 2013

This study aims to detecting and analyzing the defects of damaged carbon fiber reinforced composites after impacts, particularly focusing on barely visible impact damages. The impact test was progressed by a drop-weight machine and applied to introduce simulated damages on laminated composites used in aircrafts. Various nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques were applied to identify the defects on the specimens with different levels of impact energies. Based on the measurements data, the levels of the barely visible impacts, and the applicability and effectiveness of the detection methods were discussed. Generally, the results demonstrated that their inner damages contained bigger footprints than those on the surfaces. However, when the damage energy was low, it was found that the inner damage size could be smaller than those appeared on the surfaces.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.81-97
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• 2011

In this research, the wavelet transform is used to analyze time response of a cracked beam carrying moving mass for damage detection. In this respect, a new damage detection method based on the combined use of continuous and discrete wavelet transforms is proposed. It is shown that this method is more capable in making damage signature evident than the traditional two approaches based on direct investigation of the wavelet coefficients of structural response. By the proposed method, it is concluded that strain data outperforms displacement data at the same point in revealing damage signature. In addition, influence of moving mass-induced terms such as gravitational, Coriolis, centrifuge forces, and pure inertia force along the deflection direction to damage detection is investigated on a sample case. From this analysis it is concluded that centrifuge force has the most influence on making both displacement and strain data damage-sensitive. The Coriolis effect is the second to improve the damage-sensitivity of data. However, its impact is considerably less than the former. The rest, on the other hand, are observed to be insufficient alone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.158-162
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• 2003

The PVDF(polyvinylidene fluoride) film sensor as one of smart sensors has good characteristics to detect the impact damages of composite structures. The capabilities of the PVDF film sensor for evaluating impact behaviors and damages of Gr/Ep laminates subjected to low-velocity impact were examined. From sensor signals, the specific wave-forms implying the damage were detected. The wavelet transform(WT) and Short Time Fourier Transform(STFT) were used to decompose the piezoelectric sensor signals in this study. The impact behaviors of Gr/Ep laminates were simulated and the impact forces were reconstructed using the sensor signals. Finally, the impact damages were predicted by finite element analysis with the reconstructed forces. For experimental verification, a series of low-velocity impact tests from low energy to damage-induced energy were carried-out. The extent of damage in each case was examined by means of ultrasonic C-scan and the measured damage areas were agreed well with the predicted areas by the F.E.A.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.264-267
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• 2005

Impact damages are very important in the perspective of residual strength of composite structures such as aircrafts, ships, and trains because those damages are sometimes not visible on the surface of the point of impact and the impact resistance of laminated composites is usually not so high. Thus, the impact characteristics of laminated composites should he investigated for the safety of composite structures. This paper investigates the low-velocity impact and damage detection conducted on woven carbon/epoxy laminates. Experimental results show that the type of damage is dependent on the impact energy level and the delamination area becomes larger as the impact energy increases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.13-16
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• 2005

The mechanical properties of composite materials may degrade severely in the presence of damage. Especially, the high-velocity impact such as bird strike, a hailstorm, and a small piece of tire or stone during high taxing, can cause sever damage to the structures and sub-system in spite of a very small mass. However, it is not easy to detect the damage in composite plates using a single technique or any conventional methods. In this paper, the PYDF(polyvinylidene fluoride) film sensors and strain gages were used for monitoring impact damage initiation and propagation in composite laminates. The WT(wavelet transform) and STFT(short time Fourier transform) are used to decompose the sensor signals. A ultrasonic C-scan and a digital microscope are also used to examine the extent of the damage in each case. This research demonstrate how various sensing techniques, PVDF sensor in particular, can be used to characterize high-velocity impact damage in advanced composites.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1221-1232
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• 2015

In recent decades, wavelet transforms as a strong signal processing tool have attracted attention of researchers for damage identification. Apart from the wide application of wavelet transforms for damage identification, influence of higher order modes on the quality of damage detection has been a challenging matter for researchers. In this study, influence of higher order modes and different mass configurations on the quality of damage detection through Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) was studied. Nine different damage scenarios were imposed to four cantilever structures having different mass configurations. The first four mode shapes of the cantilever structures were measured experimentally and analyzed by DWT. A damage index was defined in order to study the influence of higher order modes. Results of this study showed that change in the mass configuration had a great impact on the quality of damage detection even when the changes altered natural frequencies slightly. It was observed that for successful damage detection all available mode shapes should be taken into account and measured mode shapes had no significant priority for damage detection over each other.

• Composites Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2000

The objective of this research is to develop the impact monitoring techniques providing impact identification and damage diagnostics of smart composite laminates susceptible to impacts. This can be implemented simultaneously by using the acoustic waves by the impact loads and the acoustic emission waves from damage. In the previous research, we have discussed the impact location detection process in which impact generated acoustic waves are detected by PZT using the improved neural network paradigm. This paper describes the implementation of time-frequency analysis such as the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and the Wavelet Transform (WT) on the determination of the occurrence and the estimation of damage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.435-457
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• 2015

The most widely known form of multifunctional aircraft structure is smart structures for structural health monitoring (SHM). The aim is to provide automated systems whose purposes are to identify and to characterize possible damage within structures by using a network of actuators and sensors. Unfortunately, environmental and operational variability render many of the proposed damage detection methods difficult to successfully be applied. In this paper, an original robust damage detection approach using output-only vibration data is proposed. It is based on independent component analysis and matrix perturbation analysis, where an analytical threshold is proposed to get rid of statistical assumptions usually performed in damage detection approach. The effectiveness of the proposed SHM method is demonstrated numerically using finite element simulations and experimentally through a conformal load-bearing antenna structure and composite plates instrumented with piezoelectric ceramic materials.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.379-392
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• 2015

A number of acceleration-based damage detection methods have been developed but they have not been widely applied in engineering practices because the acceleration response is insensitive to minor damage of civil structures. In this article, a damage detection approach using the long-gauge strain sensing technology and the principle component analysis technology is proposed. The Long gauge FBG sensor has its special merit for damage detection by measuring the averaged strain over a long-gauge length, and it can be connected each other to make a distributed sensor network for monitoring the large-scale civil infrastructure. A new damage index is defined by performing the principle component analyses of the long-gauge strains measured from the intact and damaged structures respectively. Advantages of the long gauge sensing and the principle component analysis technologies guarantee the effectiveness for structural damage localization. Examples of a simple supported beam and a steel stringer bridge have been investigated to illustrate the successful applications of the proposed method for structural damage detection.