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New Developments in Guided Waves (GW) Based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Using Optical Fiber Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2024 | Viewed by 10324

Special Issue Editors

North Carolina State University
Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Interests: piezoelectric transducres for health monitoring; fibre optic sensors for strain monitoring; condition-based maintenance for composites; uncertainty quantification; reliability and risk analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This proposed Special Issue aims gather recent developments in the use of optical fiber sensors for guided wave (GW)-based structural health monitoring (SHM). GW-based SHM has remained one of the most used SHM strategies for composites in long pipe-like and large plate-like structures. Optical fiber sensors offer several advantages over conventional sensors, but until recently the sensitivity of the sensors for GW measurement restricted their use.

Thanks to the rapid developments in sensor technology and signal processing, this area has received renewed interest. The use of Fabry–Perot interferometers and fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensors in the remote-bonding configuration, etc. have improved the sensitivity of the optical fiber sensors for GW measurements. Therefore, the goal of this Special Issue is to bring together the ongoing research in the field to improve GW-based SHM using optical fiber sensors.

Dr. Rohan Soman
Prof. Kara Peters,
Dr. Zahra Sharif Khodaei
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • optical fiber sensors
  • structural health monitoring
  • guided waves
  • damage detection
  • fiber Bragg grating
  • Fabry–Perot interferometer

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 92015 KiB  
Article
Development of Hybrid Piezoelectric-Fibre Optic Composite Patch Repair Solutions
by Florian Lambinet and Zahra Sharif Khodaei
Sensors 2021, 21(15), 5131; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s21155131 - 29 Jul 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2098
Abstract
This paper proposes a hybrid structural health monitoring (SHM) solution for a smart composite patch repair for aircraft structures based on piezoelectric (PZT) and fibre optic (FO) sensors to monitor the integrity of a the bondline and detect any degradation. FO sensors are [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a hybrid structural health monitoring (SHM) solution for a smart composite patch repair for aircraft structures based on piezoelectric (PZT) and fibre optic (FO) sensors to monitor the integrity of a the bondline and detect any degradation. FO sensors are used to acquire guided waves excited by PZT transducers to allow the advantages of both sensor technologies to be utilised. One of the main challenges of guided wave based detection methodologies is to distinguish the effect of temperature on the propagating waves, from that of an existing damage. In this research, the application of the hybrid SHM system is tested on a composite step sanded repair coupon under operational condition (temperature variation) representative of an aircraft for the first time. The sensitivity of the embedded FO sensor in recording the strain waves is compared to the signals acquired by PZT sensors under varying temperature. A novel compensation algorithm is proposed to correct for the effect of the temperature on the embedded FO sensor spectrum in the hybrid set-up. The repaired specimen is then impacted with a drop mass to cause barely visible impact damage (BVID). The hybrid SHM system is then used to detect the damage, and its diagnosis results are compared to a PZT only based smart repair solution. The results show promising application of the hybrid solution for monitoring bondline integrity as well as highlighting challenges of the embedding of FO sensors for a reliable and repeatable diagnosis. Full article
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15 pages, 11696 KiB  
Article
A Two-Step Guided Waves Based Damage Localization Technique Using Optical Fiber Sensors
by Rohan Soman, Kaleeswaran Balasubramaniam, Ali Golestani, Michał Karpiński and Pawel Malinowski
Sensors 2020, 20(20), 5804; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s20205804 - 14 Oct 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2365
Abstract
Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems help in reducing maintenance cost and avoiding catastrophic failure of the structure. As a result, they have been a focus of research for the past few decades. Ideally, the methods employed should be low cost and able to [...] Read more.
Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems help in reducing maintenance cost and avoiding catastrophic failure of the structure. As a result, they have been a focus of research for the past few decades. Ideally, the methods employed should be low cost and able to detect and localize small levels of damage reliably and accurately. This paper describes a guided waves (GW) based two-step technique for damage detection and localization using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. The FBG sensors offer benefits such as the ability to be embedded and multiplexed as well as being lightweight and insensitive to electric and magnetic fields, and they have long been seen as a promising solution for the GW measurements in structures. Unfortunately, in the conventional wavelength-based interrogation they have very low signal to noise ratio and as a result low sensitivity. Therefore, the FBG sensor is incorporated in the edge filtering configuration. The major challenges in the use of FBG sensors for GW-based detection are their directional sensitivity and passive nature. The passive nature leads to the reduction in the available actuator–sensor (AS) pairs while the directionality makes the signal processing a challenge. The proposed two-step methodology overcomes these shortcomings of FBG sensors. In the first step the amplitude weighted elliptical approach is used to identify the hotspots due to the inadequate number of AS pairs, the elliptical approach is not sufficient for damage localization. Therefore, in order to further localize the damage the edge reflection based ray-tracing approach is implemented in the second step. Through the two step method, the damage is accurately located. The paper provides the proof of concept of the proposed methodology on an aluminum plate with simulated damage. The results indicate, that indeed the two-step methodology allows accurate damage localization and overcomes the possibility of false detections. Full article
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Review

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34 pages, 4048 KiB  
Review
Optical Fiber Sensors for Ultrasonic Structural Health Monitoring: A Review
by Rohan Soman, Junghyun Wee and Kara Peters
Sensors 2021, 21(21), 7345; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s21217345 - 04 Nov 2021
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 4914
Abstract
Guided waves (GW) and acoustic emission (AE) -based structural health monitoring (SHM) have widespread applications in structures, as the monitoring of an entire structure is possible with a limited number of sensors. Optical fiber-based sensors offer several advantages, such as their low weight, [...] Read more.
Guided waves (GW) and acoustic emission (AE) -based structural health monitoring (SHM) have widespread applications in structures, as the monitoring of an entire structure is possible with a limited number of sensors. Optical fiber-based sensors offer several advantages, such as their low weight, small size, ability to be embedded, and immunity to electro-magnetic interference. Therefore, they have long been regarded as an ideal sensing solution for SHM. In this review, the different optical fiber technologies used for ultrasonic sensing are discussed in detail. Special attention has been given to the new developments in the use of FBG sensors for ultrasonic measurements, as they are the most promising and widely used of the sensors. The paper highlights the physics of the wave coupling to the optical fiber and explains the different phenomena such as directional sensitivity and directional coupling of the wave. Applications of the different sensors in real SHM applications have also been discussed. Finally, the review identifies the encouraging trends and future areas where the field is expected to develop. Full article
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