This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1475921708090559v1 7/3/203    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Kesavan, A. Articles by Herszberg, I. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Strain-based Structural Health Monitoring of Complex Composite Structures

School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia

Sabu John

School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia, sabu.john{at}rmit.edu

Israel Herszberg

Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS) 506 Lorimer St., Fishermans Bend, Victoria 3207, Australia

The use of composite structures in engineering applications has proliferated over the past few decades due to its distinct advantages, namely: high structural performance, corrosion resistance, and high strength/weight ratio. However, they also come with a set of disadvantages, i.e., they are prone to fiber breakage, matrix cracking, and delaminations. These types of damage are often invisible and if undetected, could lead to catastrophic failures of structures. Although there are systems to detect such damage, the criticality assessment and prognosis of the damage is often much more difficult to achieve. This article discusses the research study conducted, which resulted in the development of a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system for a 2D polymeric composite T-joint, used in maritime structures. The SHM system was found to be capable of not only detecting the presence of multiple delaminations in a composite structure, but also capable of determining the location and extent of all the delaminations present in the T-joint structure, regardless of the load (angle and magnitude) acting on the structure. The system developed relies on the examination of the strain distribution of the structure under operational loading.

Key Words: composites neural • networks • sensors • finite element • damage • T-joints

This version was published on September 1, 2008

Structural Health Monitoring, Vol. 7, No. 3, 203-213 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1475921708090559


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?