skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Delamination identification of laminated composite plates using measured mode shapes
An accurate non-model-based method for delamination identification of laminated composite plates is proposed in this work. A weighted mode shape damage index is formulated using squared weighted difference between a measured mode shape of a composite plate with delamination and one from a polynomial that fits the measured mode shape of the composite plate with a proper order. Weighted mode shape damage indices associated with at least two measured mode shapes of the same mode are synthesized to formulate a synthetic mode shape damage index to exclude some false positive identification results due to measurement noise and error. An auxiliary mode shape damage index is proposed to further assist delamination identification, by which some false negative identification results can be excluded and edges of a delamination area can be accurately and completely identified. Both numerical and experimental examples are presented to investigate effectiveness of the proposed method, and it is shown that edges of a delamination area in composite plates can be accurately and completely identified when measured mode shapes are contaminated by measurement noise and error. In the experimental example, identification results of a composite plate with delamination from the proposed method are validated by its C-scan image.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1762917 1763024
PAR ID:
10111541
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Smart Structures and Systems
Volume:
23
Issue:
2
ISSN:
1738-1584
Page Range / eLocation ID:
195-205
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    Curvatures in mode shapes and operating deflection shapes have been extensively studied for vibration-based structural damage identification in recent decades. Curvatures of mode shapes and operating deflection shapes have proved capable of localizing and manifesting local effects of damage on mode shapes and operating deflection shapes in forms of local anomalies. The damage can be inversely identified in the neighborhoods of the anomalies that exist in the curvatures. Meanwhile, propagating flexural waves have also been extensively studied for structural damage identification and proved to be effective, thanks to their high damage-sensitivity and long range of propagation. In this work, a baseline-free structural damage identification method is developed for beam-like structures using curvature waveforms of propagating flexural waves. A multi-resolution local-regression temporal-spatial curvature damage index (TSCDI) is defined in a pointwise manner. A two-dimensional auxiliary TSCDI and a one-dimensional auxiliary damage index are developed to further assist the identification. Two major advantages of the proposed method are: (1) curvature waveforms of propagating flexural waves have relatively high signal-to-noise ratios due to the use of a multi-resolution central finite difference scheme, so that the local effects of the damage can be manifested, and (2) the proposed method does not require quantitative knowledge of a pristine structure associated with a structure to be examined, such as its material properties, waveforms of propagating flexural waves and boundary conditions. Numerical and experimental investigations of the proposed method are conducted on damaged beam-like structures, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the results of the investigations. 
    more » « less
  2. A continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (CSLDV) system is capable of efficient and spatially dense vibration measurements by sweeping its laser spot along a scan path assigned on a structure. This paper proposes a new operational modal analysis (OMA) method based on a data processing method for CSLDV measurements of a structure, called the lifting method, under white-noise excitation and applies a baseline-free method to identify structural damage using estimated mode shapes from the OMA method. The lifting method enables transformation of raw CSLDV measurements into measurements at individual virtual measurement points, as if the latter were made by use of an ordinary scanning laser Doppler vibrometer in a step-wise manner. It is shown that a correlation function with nonnegative time delays between lifted CSLDV measurements at two virtual measurement points on a structure under white-noise excitation and its power spectrum contain modal parameters of the structure, that is, natural frequencies, modal damping ratios, and mode shapes. The modal parameters can be estimated by using a standard OMA algorithm. A major advantage of the proposed OMA method is that curvature mode shapes associated with mode shapes estimated by the method can reflect local anomaly caused by small-sized structural damage, while those estimated by other existing OMA methods that use CSLDV measurements cannot. Numerical and experimental investigations are conducted to study the OMA method and baseline-free structural damage identification method. In the experimental investigation, effects of the scan frequency of a CSLDV system on the two methods were studied. It is shown in both the numerical and experimental investigations that modal parameters can be accurately estimated by the OMA method and structural damage can be successfully identified in neighborhoods with consistently high values of curvature damage indices. 
    more » « less
  3. Convolution and matched filtering are often used to detect a known signal in the presence of noise. The probability of detection and probability of missed detection are well known and widely used statistics. Oftentimes we are not only interested in the probability of detecting a signal but also accurately estimating when the signal occurred and the error statistics associated with that time measurement. Accurately representing the timing error is important for geolocation schemes, such as Time of Arrival (TOA) and Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), as well as other applications. The Cramér Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) and other, tighter, bounds have been calculated for the error variance on Time of Arrival estimators. However, achieving these bounds requires an amount of interpolation be performed on the signal of interest that may be greater than computational constraints allow. Furthermore, at low Signal to Noise Ratios (SNRs), the probability distribution for the error is non-Gaussian and depends on the shape of the signal of interest. In this paper we introduce a method of characterizing the localization accuracy of the matched filtering operation when used to detect a discrete signal in Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) without additional interpolation. The actual localization accuracy depends on the shape of the signal that is being detected. We develop a statistical method for analyzing the localization error probability mass function for arbitrary signal shapes at any SNR. Finally, we use our proposed analysis method to calculate the error probability mass functions for a few signals commonly used in detection scenarios. These illustrative results serve as examples of the kinds of statistical results that can be generated using our proposed method. The illustrative results demonstrate our method’s unique ability to calculate the non-Gaussian, and signal shape dependent, error distribution at low Signal to Noise Ratios. The error variance calculated using the proposed method is shown to closely track simulation results, deviating from the Cramér Rao Lower Bound at low Signal to Noise Ratios. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract A new class of thin flexible structures is introduced that morph from flat into prescribed 3D shapes through strain mismatch between layers of a composite plate. To achieve control over the target shape, two different concepts are coupled. First, motivated by biological growth, strain mismatch is applied between the flat composite layers to transform it into a 3D shape. Depending on the amount of the applied strain mismatch, the transformation involves buckling into one of the available finite number of deformation modes. Second, inspired by kirigami, portions of the material are removed from one of the layers according to a specific pattern. This dramatically increases the number of possible 3D shapes and allows us to attain specific topologies. An experimental apparatus that allows precise control of the strain mismatch is devised. An inverse problem is posed, where starting from a given target shape, the physical parameters that make these shapes possible are determined. To show how the concept works, it focuses on circular composite plates and designs a kirigami pattern that yields a hemispherical structure. The analysis combines a theoretical approach with numerical simulations and physical experiments to understand and predict the shape transition from 2D to 3D. The tools developed here can be extended to attain arbitrary 3D shapes. The initially flat shape suggests that conventional additive manufacturing techniques can be used to functionalize the soft kirigami composite to fabricate, for example, deployable 3D structures, smart skins, and soft electromagnetic metasurfaces. 
    more » « less
  5. The acoustic and aerodynamic fields of blunt porous plates are examined experimentally in an effort to mitigate trailing-edge bluntness noise. The plates are characterized by a single dimensionless porosity parameter identified in previous works that controls the influence of porosity on the sound field. Hot-wire anemometry interrogates the velocity field to connect turbulence details of specific regions to flow noise directivity and beamforming source maps. Porous plates are demonstrated to reduce the bluntness-induced noise by up to 17 dB and progressively suppress broadband low-frequency noise as the value of the porosity parameter increases. However, an increase in this parameter also increases the high-frequency noise created by the pores themselves. The same highly perforated plate characterized by a large value of the porosity parameter reduces the bluntness-induced vortex shedding that is present in the wake of the impermeable plate. Lastly, pore shape and positional alignment are shown to have a complex effect on the acoustic field. Among the porosity designs considered, plates with circular pores are most effective for low-frequency noise reductions but generate high-frequency noise. No meaningful difference is found between the acoustic spectra from plates of the same open-area fraction with pores aligned along or staggered about the flow direction. 
    more » « less