Experimental verification of the lamb-wave based damage detection algorithm

This paper presents a concept of a structural health monitoring system based on a clock-like configuration of PZT transducers bonded to an aluminium plate. Numerical simulations of the propagation of transverse elastic waves (A0 mode of the Lamb wave) in an aluminium plate have been used in order to investigate their behaviour and to visualize their reflections caused by cracks. Signals from numerical simulations have been analyzed in order to built a damage detection algorithm. The proposed damage detection algorithm results in a damage influence map, which precisely shows the location of the damage. The proposed algorithm has been verified experimentally. For this purpose special hardware has been designed and manufactured.