Structural Health Conducting In Clever Structures By Lamb Waves Approaches |

ABSTRACT:

Nowadaysthere is great interest in structural damage detection using non- destructivetests. Once the failure is identified, as for instance a crack, it is possibleto plan the next step based on a predictive maintenance program. There areseveral different approaches that can be used to obtain information about theexistence, location and extension of the fault in mechanical systems by nondestructive tests. This paper presents a technique for structural healthconducting (SHM) based on Lamb waves approach using piezoelectric material asactuators and sensors. Lamb waves are a form of elastic perturbation thatremains guided between two parallel free surfaces, such as the upper and lowersurfaces of a plate, beam or shell. Lamb waves are formed when the actuatorexcites the surface of the structure with a pulse after receiving a signal. Inthis context, a flexible plate using three PZT actuators and three PZT sensorswas used to make the configuration of the Lamb waves approach. The aluminumplate was represented by a model of second order written in modal coordinates.Structural damages were simulated through reduction of the stiffness in oneelement. The results showed with clarity the location of the simulated damage;so, proving the viability of the presented methodology.