Damage Detection Using In-Situ Piezo Transducers on a Composite Laminate Using Lamb Wave

This paper is aimed at experimentally developing an in-situ macro-fibre composite (MFC (TM)) piezoelectric transducer sparse array which functions as both actuator and sensor of Lamb wave for damage detection in composite laminate. Lamb waves which have been used in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of plate-like structures, can be used for active monitoring and interrogating the health of the structures due to their long range propagation with less attenuation. MFC acting as a powerful actuator of Lamb wave as well as a sensitive sensor is highly conformable and anisotropic in behaviour compared to monolithic piezoelectric transducer. The surface bonded MFC transducer on woven carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminate shows directional Lamb wave generation and reception characteristics. Pitch catch approach is used for low velocity impact damage detection. The MFC sensor shows a drastic drop in signal amplitude with the growth of the impact damage.