PROJECT TITLE :

An In-Situ Structural Health Diagnosis Technique and Its Realization via a Modularized System

ABSTRACT:

By scrutinizing local propagation characteristics of injury-modulated guided waves (GWs), an in-situ health diagnosis technique, targeting in-service engineering structures, is developed. This technique characterizes structural injury quantitatively, regardless of its quantity, and consequently evaluates structural integrity in a real-time manner. A self-contained system is accordingly configured to materialize this system, which integrates modularized components through a bus called Peripheral component interconnect eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI), for active GW generation, multichannel information acquisition, central management, signal postprocessing, and results presentation. The monitoring results are presented in pixelated images by virtue of a diagnostic imaging algorithm, facilitating comprehension of the general structural health standing intuitively, promptly, and automatically. In conjunction with the system, a sensing technique, based mostly on a concept of decentralized commonplace sensing, is demonstrated, that encompasses a capability of constructing a sensor network with convenience and adaptability. An optimal benchmarking strategy in accordance with signal correlation is formulated to make amends for the adverse ambient influence (e.g., temperature fluctuation) in rugged measurement conditions. Experimental validation is meted out to verify the technique and therefore the system by evaluating mock-up damage in planar and tubular structures quantitatively, showing superior detectability, sensitivity, and accuracy. Notably, its expandable nature permits the system to be tailor-created toward numerous real-world applications, and enhances the universality, flexibility, and compatibility of the developed diagnosis technique.