Sensor health diagnostics for piezoelectric-based SHM systems

This paper describes a diagnostic approach for determining the health of one or more sensors that make Lip an array of piezoelectric transducers used in a structural health monitoring system. The method depends on measurements of sensor signal quality and electromechanical impedance properties of the transducers in the sensor array. Experiments conducted oil a composite structure indicate that integrating a sensor diagnostics algorithm into a damage mapping algorithm reduces false detection of damage and improves the accuracy of the assessed extent of actual damage.