A Hybrid Structural Health Monitoring System for the Detection and Localization of Damage in Composite Structures

Abstract EN

A hybrid structural health monitoring (SHM) system, consisting of a piezoelectric transducer and fiber optic sensors (FOS)for generating and monitoring Lamb waves, was investigated to determine their potential for damage detection and localizationin composite aerospace structures.

As part of this study, the proposed hybrid SHM system, together with an in-housedeveloped algorithm, was evaluated to detect and localize two types of damage: a through thickness damage (hole of 2 mmin diameter) and a surface damage (2 mm diameter bore hole with a depth of 0.65 mm) located on the backside of theplate.

The experiments were performed using an aircraft representative composite plate skin, manufactured from carbonfiber reinforced polymer (CFRP).