Andrzej Klepka

Nonlinear acoustics for fatigue crack detection – experimental investigations of vibro-acoustic wave modulations

Vibro-acoustic nonlinear wave modulations are investigated experimentally in a cracked aluminum plate. The focus is on the effect of low-frequency vibration excitation on modulation intensity and associated nonlinear wave interaction mechanisms. The study reveals that energy dissipation – not opening–closing crack action – is the major mechanism behind nonlinear modulations. The consequence is that relatively weak strain fields can be used for crack detection in metallic structures. A clear link between modulations and thermo-elastic coupling is also demonstrated, providing experimental evidence for the recently proposed non-classical, nonlinear vibro-acoustic wave interaction mechanism.

Impact damage detection in composite chiral sandwich panels using nonlinear vibro-acoustic modulations

This paper reports an application of nonlinear acoustics to impact damage detection in a composite chiral sandwich panel. The panel is built from a chiral honeycomb and two composite skins. High-frequency ultrasonic excitation and low-frequency modal excitation were used to observe nonlinear modulations in ultrasonic waves due to structural damage. Low-profile, surface-bonded piezoceramic transducers were used for ultrasonic excitation. Non-contact laser vibrometry was applied for ultrasonic sensing. The work presented focuses on the analysis of the modulation intensities and damage-related nonlinearities. The paper demonstrates that the method can be used for impact damage detection in composite chiral sandwich panels.

Real Time Estimation of Modal Parameters and Their Quality Assessment

In this paper the recursive method for modal parameters estimation is formulated and verified. Formulated algorithms are implemented in the FPGA electronic chip. As a result, the modal parameters and confidence bounds for the modal parameters are obtained in real time. The algorithms and their implementations are tested on laboratory test rig data and applied to – flight modal analysis of an airframe structure.

Impact damage detection in light composite sandwich panels using piezo-based nonlinear vibro-acoustic modulations

The nonlinear vibro-acoustic modulation technique is used for impact damage detection in light composite sandwich panels. The method utilizes piezo-based low-frequency vibration and high-frequency ultrasonic excitations. The work presented focuses on the analysis of modulation intensity. The results show that the method can be used for impact damage detection reliably separating damage-related from vibro-acoustic modulations from other intrinsic nonlinear modulations.

Nonlinear vibroacoustic wave modulations for structural damage detection: an overview

Abstract. We present an overview of research developments related to the nonlinear vibroacoustic modulation technique used for structural damage detection. The method of interest is based on nonlinear interactions of a low-frequency pumping wave and a high-frequency probing wave. These two waves are introduced to monitored structures simultaneously. Then the presence of damage is exhibited by additional frequency components that result from nonlinear damage-wave interactions. A vast amount of research has been performed in this area over the last two decades. We aim to present the state-of-the-art of these developments. The major focus is on monitoring approaches, modeling aspects, actuation/sensing, signal processing, and application examples.

Impact damage detection in composite chiral sandwich panels

This paper demonstrates impact damage detection in a composite sandwich panel. The panel is built from a chiral honeycomb and two composite skins. Chiral structures are a subset of auxetic solids exhibiting counterintuitive deformation mechanism and rotative but not reflective symmetry. Damage detection is performed using nonlinear acoustics,involves combined vibro-acoustic interaction of high-frequency ultrasonic wave and low-frequency vibration excitation. High-and low-frequency excitations are introduced to the panel using a low-profile piezoceramic transducer and an electromagnetic shaker, respectively. Vibro-acoustic modulated responses are measured using laser vibrometry. The methods used for impact damage detection clearly reveal de-bonding in the composite panel. The high-frequency weak ultrasonic wave is also modulated by the low-frequency strong vibration wave when nonlinear acoustics is used for damage detection. As a result frequency sidebands can be observed around the main acoustic harmonic in the spectrum of the ultrasonic signal.

A Review of Laser Doppler Vibrometry for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

Non-contact optical/laser measuring techniques are very attractive in many engineering applications. The paper demonstrates examples related to structural health monitoring. Various methods based on strain, vibration and ultrasound measurements are presented together with relevant references. Applications examples utilise in-plane and out-of-plane measurements taken by 1-D and 3-D laser Doppler vibrometers.

Non-Linear Vibro-Acoustic Wave Modulations - Analysis of Different Types of Low-Frequency Excitation

Signal processing method based on wavelet transform used in non-linear acoustic test is presented in the paper. The method is applied for sidebands identification in response signal acquired during vibro-acoustic modulation test of impacted carbon fiber reinforced plate (CFRP). The plate was impacted with known energy using drop-weight testing machine. The modulation effect in investigated specimen results from the interaction of low and high frequency excitation with damage. The paper investigates different than mono-harmonic low-frequency excitation usually used in non-linear acoustics tests. Application of aperiodic low-frequency excitation signal allows to omit the modal test, where natural frequency of the structure are estimated. However, this requires the use of dedicated signal processing methods.

Stationarity-Based Approach for the Selection of Lag Length in Cointegration Analysis Used for Structural Damage Detection

Cointegration has been recently brought to structural health monitoring SHM as a new methodology for dealing with the problem of environmental and/or operational variability in monitored structures. However, it is well known that the choice of lag length in cointegration analysis has a strong influence on damage detection results. The article presents a new approach for optimal lag length selection in cointegration analysis used for structural damage detection. This new method is based on stationarity analysis of data representing undamaged condition. The proposed method is validated using Lamb wave data under the effects of temperature variations and vibroacoustic data obtained from nonlinear vibroacoustic modulation experiments with different low-frequency vibration or modal excitations. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method for structural damage detection based on SHM data heavily affected by environmental or operational conditions.

Analysis of Vibro-Acoustic Modulations in Nonlinear Acoustics Used for Impact Damage Detection - Numerical and Experimental Study

The paper investigates experimentally the effect of low-frequency vibration on nonlinear vibro-acoustic wave modulations applied to the detection of Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID) in a composite plate. Finite Element (FE) modeling was used in a pretest stage to identify different motion scenarios of delaminated surfaces and relate them to natural frequencies of the damaged plate. In particular the opening-closing and frictional sliding actions of the defected interfaces have been considered. Subsequently, the identified frequencies have been used for low frequency excitation in nonlinear acoustic experiments on a composite plate with impact damage.