Optimizing location of damage within an enclosed area defined by an algorithm based on the Lamb wave response data

Abstract

In the present study, experiments are carried out on an Aluminium (Al) plate with and without damage, using Lamb waves and an array of four Piezoelectric Wafer (PW) transducers bonded onto it. The PW transducers are used to actuate and sense Lamb waves. These transducers are very compact, cheap, and can be easily bonded onto the structure. The responses recorded from the experiments, are further analyzed using a new algorithm developed by the authors, in order to localize the damage. The damage location is obtained as a small enclosed area formed by the intersection of various curves generated by an algorithm proposed by the authors. The damage location is further refined within this enclosed area using the optimization methods. Three different types of damages are considered in the present work. The case of multiple damage localization is also reported here. The results obtained by the algorithm are in excellent agreement with the actual location of damage. Thus, the present method has the capability of locating single as well as multiple damages in plate structures using minimal number of transducers.