Experimental broadband signal reconstruction for plate-like structures

In the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) field, Acoustic Emissions (AE) is the process by which acoustic signals generated during the formation of damage are captured by sensors, analyzed and used for localization within the structure. In plate like structures, these signals lead to the formation of Lamb Waves (LW), which are broadband in nature. These LW are generally captured by Piezoelectric Titanum Zirconate (PZT) sensors. As such, the captured broadband signals are of difficult interpretation in part due to several phenomena such as dispersion or attenuation suffered by the waves during their propagation. In this study, we hypothesize that the nature of the emitted signal contains information on the damage type, as if the features of the emitted signal were a 'fingerprint' of the damage. Wing or fuselage panels are some of the aeronautical structures were LW can develop during the emission of an acoustic signal. In operational service environments, the damage type and size may lead to the generation of different signal sources. This study aims at the development, through experimental techniques, of a classification algorithm based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for determining the source of the emission in addition to their location within a structure. It is envisioned that the AI algorithms will be capable of identifying specific features within the emitted signals and thus correlate them to a database of known signals and their corresponding associated damage types. In order to create an AE signal damage database, the captured signal cannot be used since it has been affected by its propagation through the structure. As such, a Time Reversal process will be implemented in order to reconstruct the original signal. This original signal will be the one utilized by the AI algorithm in order to identify its corresponding damage source.