Characterization of propagation and scattering via wavefield imaging for improved in situ imaging of damage in composites

Abstract

Detection, localization, and characterization of impact damage in composites using in situ transducers are important objectives for the aerospace industry to both reduce maintenance costs and prevent failures. A network of piezoelectric transducers spatially distributed over an area of interest is one practical configuration for utilizing guided waves to accomplish these objectives. Detecting and localizing barely visible impact damage with such a sparse array has been demonstrated in prior work, and improvements in localization were demonstrated by incorporating fairly crude estimates of scattering patterns in the imaging algorithms. Here we obtain more estimates of scattering patterns from a simulated defect by employing baseline subtraction of wavefield data recorded in a circle centered at the scatterer. Scattering patterns are estimated from the wavefield residual signals before and after simulated damage is introduced and the estimated scattering patterns are then incorporated into sparse array imaging via the minimum variance imaging method. Images created with different scattering patterns are compared and the efficacy of the methodology is assessed.