Impact and Damage Localization on Carbon-Fibre-Reinforced Plastic Plates

The development of a complementary system is suggested which allows for monitoring the actual loading of the structure, especially loads due to impact. A new wave migration model enables to determine the location of an impact for non-isotropic plates. The method is based on the wave propagation after the impact. Piezo-electric sensors capture the strain caused by the propagating wave. The evaluation and processing of the signals of at least four sensors allow for the calculation of the impact location from the runtime of the signals. In the case of non-isotropic material the shape of the wave front has to be known. On the same basis damage localisation in anisotropic carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic plates is possible. Considerations to signal analysis are presented and the damage localization modelis validated experimentally.