Spiral Passive Electromagnetic Sensor (SPES) for composite structural changes in aircraft structures

Abstract

A major goal of structural health monitoring (SHM) is to provide accurate and responsive detection and monitoring of flaws. This research work reports an investigation of SPES sensors for damage detection, investigating different sensor sizes and how they affect the sensor's signal. A sensor able to monitor structural changes that can be remotely interrogated and does not need a power supply is presented in this work. The SPES-sensor presents the great advantage of monitoring conductive and non-conductive structures such as fiberglass-reinforced composites (FRC) and carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP). Any phenomena that affect the magnetic field of the SPES can be detected and monitored. A study was conducted to investigate the capability of sensor to give information on structural changes, simulated by the presence of an external mass placed in the proximity of sensor. Effect of different positions of the SPES within the sample, and how to extend the area of inspection using multiple sensors was investigated. The sensor was tested embedded in the samples, simulating the structural changes on both sides of the sample. In both configurations the sensor described herein demonstrated a great potential to monitor structural changes.