Abstract
The paper deals with theoretical and experimental studies for the development of a self-powered structural health monitoring (SHM) system using macro-fiber composite (MFC) patches. The basic idea is to integrate the actuation, sensing, and energy harvesting capabilities of the MFC patches in a SHM system operating in different regimes. As an example, during flight, under the effects of normal structural vibrations, the patches can work as energy harvesters by maintaining or restoring the battery charge of the stand-by SHM electronic board; on the other hand, if relevant/abnormal loadings are applied, or if local faults produce a noticeable stiffness variation of the monitored component, the patches can act as sensors for the power-up SHM board. During maintenance, the patches can then work as actuators, to stress the structure with pre-defined load profiles, as well as sensors, to monitor the structural response. In this paper, the investigation, based on the electromechanical impedance technique, is carried out on a system prototype made of a cantilevered composite laminate with six MFC patches. A high-fidelity nonlinear model of the system, including the piezoelectric hysteresis of the patches and three vibration modes of the laminate beam, is presented and validated with experiments. The results support the potential feasibility of the system, pointing out that the energy storage can be used for recharging a 3V-65mAh Li-ion battery, suitable for low-power electronic boards. The model is finally used to characterize a condition-monitoring algorithm in terms of false alarms rejection and vulnerability to dormant faults, by simulating built-in tests to be performed during maintenance.
Highlights
Piezoelectric materials are widely used in a variety of aerospace applications in both sensing and low-power actuation devices, and many research works discuss the use of such materials as actuators, sensors, or energy harvesters
This paper aims to provide a contribution within this research framework, with particular reference is presented and validated against experimental data; a model-based condition-monitoring to the design of an electromechanical impedance-based structural health monitoring (SHM) system [21,22,23,24] operating in different algorithm is described and verified, by simulating different levels of system performance deviations
Model several formulations are available in the literature to describe the phenomenon, and they are classified into two categories: static and dynamic models, depending to collect the system identification of the system prototype was on theAiming use or not of ordinary differential equationsdatabase, (ODE) inthe thedynamics models themselves
Summary
Piezoelectric materials are widely used in a variety of aerospace applications in both sensing and low-power actuation devices, and many research works discuss the use of such materials as actuators, sensors, or energy harvesters. MFC piezoelectric devices have relevant potentialities as sensors, and a strong interest is (a)for their application in SHM or health usage and (b) growing in the aerospace field monitoring systems. MFC piezoelectric devices have relevant potentialities as sensors, and a strong interest is growing in paper the aerospace for their application within in SHMthis or health usage and monitoring systems This aims tofield provide a contribution research framework, with particular (HUMS). Attention has been dedicated (a)to the potential self-powered characteristics of these (b) systems [41,42,43,44], bringing to promising SHM solutions with airplane structures integrating MFC patches [45] (Figure 2).
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