Piezoelectric Transducer-Based Structural Health Monitoring for Aircraft Applications

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is being widely evaluated by the aerospace industry as a method to improve the safety and reliability of aircraft structures and also reduce operational cost. Built-in sensor networks on an aircraft structure can provide crucial information regarding the condition, damage state and/or service environment of the structure. Among the various types of transducers used for SHM, piezoelectric materials are widely used because they can be employed as either actuators or sensors due to their piezoelectric effect and vice versa. This paper provides a brief overview of piezoelectric transducer-based SHM system technology developed for aircraft applications in the past two decades. The requirements for practical implementation and use of structural health monitoring systems in aircraft application are then introduced. State-of-the-art techniques for solving some practical issues, such as sensor network integration, scalability to large structures, reliability and effect of environmental conditions, robust damage detection and quantification are discussed. Development trend of SHM technology is also discussed.

Influence of the PZT Sensor Array Configuration on Lamb Wave Tomography Imaging with the RAPID Algorithm for Hole and Crack Detection

“…Lamb wave-based damage detection in plate-like structures draws increasing attention because Lamb waves can travel over a long distance even in materials with high attenuation and which are highly susceptible to damage along the propagation path [1,2]. Computerized tomography (CT) has been introduced in the Lamb-wave-based damage field and has shown great potential in quantitative damage imaging inside materials [3,4].…”

Sector Piezoelectric Sensor Array Transmitter Beamforming MUSIC Algorithm Based Structure Damage Imaging Method

“…Among the SHM methods, the elastic-wave-based SHM method is regarded as a promising damage monitoring method because it is sensitive to metal cracks and the impact damage of composite materials, and can be used to monitor structures in real time. It is considered to be a promising damage monitoring method [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Piezoelectric sensors are commonly used to excite and receive elastic waves in structures, and thus, damage monitoring in structures can be combined with the damage imaging method [16].…”

An Aircraft Pallet Damage Monitoring Method Based on Damage Subarea Identification and Probability-Based Diagnostic Imaging

“…e SHM technology based on Lamb wave and piezoelectric transducer is an e cient SHM method, more and more researchers apply it to large area monitoring, active and passive monitoring, small damages monitoring and online monitoring [12][13][14]. Qing et al overview of piezoelectric transducer based SHM technology developed for aircra applications in the past two decades [15]. Song et al developed an embedded piezoceramic smart aggregate for health monitoring of concrete structures, and realized the concrete pile damages, the grouting quality of concrete-lled steel tubes, the debonding damage of FRP bar reinforced concrete, corrosion-induced degradation detected [16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”