Damage Detection Analysis Using Lamb Waves in Restricted Geometry for Aerospace Applications

Abstract

A goal of structural health monitoring (SHM) is to increase aircraft readiness through condition based maintenance (i.e. servicing an aircraft only when it is known to be necessary). The lead ziconate titanate (PZT) is a commonly used piezoelectric transducer that has shown potential to detect damage in aircraft structures without time consuming manual inspections. But many locations identified by the USAF for SHM have restricted geometries, presenting difficulties using the PZT transducers successfully. One known fatigue location in an aircraft bulkhead has been selected as a basis to evaluate some of the challenges of using PZT transducers for SHM. The goal of this research is use analytical and experimental investigations to detect fatigue cracks in plates representing the restricted geometry of the aircraft bulkhead. This research shows that detecting closed fatigue cracks can be more challenging than detecting open cracks, but that opening the cracks using an applied static load presents new challenges.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA482728

Entities

People

  • Roman T. Underwood

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Bulkheads
  • Damage Detection
  • Detection
  • Engineering
  • Geometry
  • Group Velocity
  • Maintenance
  • Modulus Of Elasticity
  • Piezoelectric Transducers
  • Static Loads
  • Structural Health Monitoring
  • Test Methods
  • Transducers
  • Wave Propagation
  • Waveform Generators
  • Waveforms

Readers

  • Facility/Structural Engineering.
  • Materials Science (Mechanical Engineering).
  • Materials Science and Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Space