Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures Using Guided Lamb Waves

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of aircrafts is of great relevance in the present age aircraft industry. The present study demonstrates three techniques that have the potential for the SHM of multi-layered composite structures. The first technique is based on multi-transmitter-multireceiver (MTMR) technique with tomographic methods used for data reconstruction. In the MTMR, the possibility of SHM using algebraic reconstruction techniques (ART) for tomographic imaging with Lamb wave data measured in realistic materials is examined. Defects (through holes and low velocity impact delaminations) were synthetic and have been chosen to simulate impact damage in composite plates. The second technique is a single-transmitter-multi-receiver (STMR) technique that is more compact and uses reconstruction techniques that are analogous to synthetic aperture techniques. The reconstruction algorithm uses summation of the phase shifted signals to image the location of defects, portions of the plate edges, and any reflectors from inherent structural features of the component. The third technique involves a linear array of sensors across a stiffener for the detection of disbanded regions.

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