Monitoring Impact Online with a Miniaturized Device for Composite Structures

Abstract

On-line impact monitoring is urgently needed in the area of composite structural health monitoring and management to ensure the safety of large-scale composite structures of aircraft as well as to reduce the cost and time of maintenance. Here, aiming at on-line applications, this research puts forward a new digital impact monitoring method. Different from traditional processing methods, the new one is achieved in a digital way by turning the outputs of PZT sensors directly into digital queues. Based on the digital queues obtained, impact occurring area and energy grade are achieved. Depending on this method, a PZT sensor array based impact monitor with advantages of miniaturized size, low weight and low energy consumption is developed which can meet the strict on-line application requests. Details of the new impact monitor design are presented in this paper. Meanwhile, an evaluation on a complex composite structure, has been conducted to verify the performance of the new digital impact monitor. This new monitor shows its potential for on-line structural PHM applications on aerospace vehicles.