On-line Detection of Composite Structural Faults Utilizing Piezoelectric Impedance Measurement

Abstract

The timely and accurate detection and identification of structural faults during their operations can play a vitally important role in ensuring the safety and sustainability of various structural systems. This mission, however, is inherently difficult, because structural faults/degradations usually have extremely small characteristic lengths with infinitely many possible patterns/profiles. It becomes even more challenging for layered composites due to the lack of understanding of many failure modes peculiar to such structures. In this research, we integrate the piezoelectric transducer into layered composites to facilitate piezoelectric impedance-based damage detection. In order to enhance the measurement quality, several circuitry integration techniques are introduced.