Development of an Automated Impact Hammer for Modal Analysis of Structures

Abstract

This report outlines the development and testing of a prototype compact automated impact hammer designed to be surface mounted on a structure to provide an impulse-based structural excitation source for vibration testing. The automated device was designed to be integrated with a distributed fibre optic sensing system which measures the in-plane dynamic strain of the structure at a spatially dense grid of sensing points. The hammer was tested on a composite plate with induced damage and the excitation and response data were used to generate complex curvature shapes for the plate. These data were in turn used with a structural health monitoring tool known as iSIDER that detects anomalies in complex operating curvature shapes to locate damage and other areas with structural sti ness variations. The impactor was shown to replicate the functionality of a modally tuned impact hammer that had been used previously. The analysed data correctly identified the impact damage location using a fully automated routine.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA560339

Entities

People

  • C. Davis
  • C. Ratcliffe
  • G. Jung
  • P. E. Norman
  • R. Crane

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Analyzers
  • Australia
  • Bragg Gratings
  • Composite Structures
  • Computer Programming
  • Data Acquisition
  • Detectors
  • Fiber Bragg Gratings
  • Frequency Analyzers
  • Load Cells
  • Measurement
  • Modal Analysis
  • Optical Fibers
  • Power Supplies
  • Structural Health Monitoring
  • Test Methods

Readers

  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.
  • Structural Dynamics.
  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.