<title>Longitudinal wave propagation measuring technique for structural health monitoring</title>

Abstract

This work presents a practical and quantitative technique for assessment of the location and characterization of damages by longitudinal wave propagation measuring method. It is shown that the damage location can be simply determined by taking the difference of the time response between the healthy condition and the damaged condition, and the damage state would be quantified by the power consumption metric defined in frequency domain. The accuracy and the efficiency were validated by the experiment results on a simple aluminum beam. Further, the technique using piezoelectric materials as actuator and sensor separately and simultaneously is also demonstrated in order to reduce the numbers of the PZT patches embedded in the structures and the cost for wiring.