Damage Localization on Composite Structures Based on the Delay-and-Sum Algorithm Using Simulation and Experimental Methods

Damage detection and localization based on ultrasonic guided waves revealed to be promising for structural health monitoring and nondestructive testing. However, the use of a piezoelectric sensor’s network to locate and image damaged areas in composite structures requires a number of precautions including the consideration of anisotropy and baseline signals. The lack of information related to these two parameters drastically deteriorates the imaging performance of numerous signal processing methods. To avoid such deterioration, the present contribution proposes different methods to build baseline signals in different types of composites. Baseline signals are first constructed from a numerical simulation model using the previously determined elasticity tensor of the structure. Since the latter tensor is not always easy to obtain especially in the case of anisotropic materials, a second PZT network is used in order to obtain signals related to Lamb waves propagating in different directions. Waveforms are then translated according to a simplified theoretical propagation model of Lamb waves in homogeneous structures. The application of the different methods on transversely isotropic, unidirectional and quasi-transversely isotropic composites allows to have satisfactory images that well represent the damaged areas with the help of the delay-and-sum algorithm.