Optimized Actuator/Sensor Combinations for Structural Health Monitoring: Simulation and Experimental Validation

Improved structural integrity of engineering structures is one of the key features of having a reliable Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system with regard to Damage Tolerant Design (DTD). Modelling of damage, its predictive analysis as well as numerical simulations to model wave propagation in case of ultrasonic based guided wave methods are possible using commercial Finite Element Methods (FEM) based software. Such software is computationally intensive and lacks major importance on SHM aspects such as probability of damage analysis with respect to DTD and actuator- sensor optimization with respect to NDT methods. Bridging both the DTD and NDT simulations in a single simulation package can aid better understanding of the various physical processes involved in the SHM domain. In this paper, we propose a study on an experimental panel where Probability of Damage analysis is performed and using the information of the damage location and the mesh created to perform such analysis, a guided wave simulation is performed to optimize the actuator-sensor locations so that the sensors mounted can capture the signal carrying the signature of the defect present in the component. An experimental study is performed to validate the simulation results. The simulation tools to be used will be commercial or close to commercialization which are currently made available through a simulation platform developed under the Indo-German INDEUS project. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/128