Methods and systems for structural health monitoring

摘要

Methods and apparatus for structural health monitoring are described. In one example, a method for use in designing a structural health monitoring (SHM) system for use in monitoring a host structure is described. The method includes one or more of a process for designing SHM systems for any given piece of structural hardware, a process for evaluating a given SHM system, a method to quantify the performance of a given SHM system in comparison to current inspection processes, a finite element modeling approach to determining excitation frequencies to detect damage and for selecting the best time window to use for sensed excitation signals, a Bayesian Network based data fusion technique that fuses in environmental information (load cycles induced on the structure) with a damage index (DI) to produce crack detection and estimation of crack length, and a damage location and sensor selection technique.

主权项

1. A method for measuring structural health on hot spots of an aircraft structure using a series of adjacently located actuators in the aircraft structure including at least one group, the method comprising:
generating, using the at least one group of the series of adjacently located actuators in the aircraft structure, a vibration in the aircraft structure; collecting, by a plurality of sensors disposed in one or more testing areas of the aircraft structure, the vibration produced by the at least one group of the series of adjacently located actuators, the plurality of sensors locally disposed in one or more testing areas of the aircraft structure; comparing, by a controller, the vibration collected by each sensor of the plurality of sensors to a reference signal for the at least one group of the series of adjacently located actuators; generating a summation of damage indexes for the at least one group of the series of adjacently located actuators; and using Bayesian network based data fusion of environmental information fused with the damage indexes from the at least one group of the series of adjacently located actuators to estimate a crack length in the aircraft structure based on a return signal response.