Multi step structural health monitoring approaches in debonding assessment in a sandwich honeycomb composite structure using ultrasonic guided waves

This paper aims to investigate the use of ultrasonic guided wave (GW) propagation mechanism and the assessment of debonding in a sandwich composite structure (SCS) using a multi-step approach. Towards this, a series of GW propagation-based laboratory experiments and numerical simulations have been carried out on the SCS sample. The debonding regions of variable size and locations were assessed using a pre-defined network of piezoelectric lead zirconate transducers (PZT). Besides, several artificial masses were also placed in the SCS to validate the multi-step structural health monitoring (SHM) strategy. The SHM approach uses a proposed quick damage identification matrix maps and an improved elliptical wave processing (EWP) strategy of the registered GW signals to detect the locations of debonding and other damages in the SCS. The benefit of the proposed damage identification map is to locate the damaged area (sectors) quickly. This identification step is followed by applying the damage localization step using the improved EWP only on the previously identified damage sector region. The proposed EWP has shown the potential to effectively locate the hidden multiple debonding regions and damages in the SCS with a reduced number of calculations using a step-wise approach that uses only a selected number of grid points. The paper shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach based on data gathered from numerical simulations and experimental studies. Thus, using the above-mentioned SHM strategy debondings and damages present within and outside the sensor network are localized. The results were cross verified with nondestructive testing (NDT) methods such as infrared thermography and laser Doppler vibrometry.