IN-SITU STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING, DIAGNOSTICS AND PROGNOSTICS SYSTEM UTILIZING THIN PIEZOELECTRIC SENSORS

摘要

A method of detecting a damaged feature within a structure (32) includes embedding a plurality of thin piezoelectric ceramic sensors (26) on the structure (32). A first sensor (34) is excited so that the first sensor (26) produces a responsive signal in the structure (32). The responsive signal is received at a second sensor. The presence or absence in the received responsive signal of at least one predetermined signal characteristic is determined, where the predetermined signal characteristic is related to existence of the damage feature.