Structural health monitoring technology for a full-scale aircraft structure under changing temperature

This paper presents optimal operating modes for the factors to maximise the detection capability of a given SHM technology in service environment. Firstly, an orthogonal experiment was perfoimed to determine the importance ranking of the influence factors. Through the test, it is found that operating temperatures for SHM hardware and excitation frequencies for PZT actuator were the most critical factors. Then, numerical model of Lamb waves generated and received by PZT sensors were presented to predict the distribution of response signal amplitudes under changing temperature. Verification tests were carried out on a glass fibre reinforced composite plate at different temperatures. The comparison between the analytical prediction and test results was presented and temperature-dependent optimal frequencies for PZT actuators were obtained. Finally, SHM experiments of full-scale horizontal composite structures are presented. The detection capability of the SHM technology applications of aircrafts in real world is verified by the experimental results.