Lamb-Wave Embedded NDE with Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring of Thin-Wall Structures

Piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are inexpensive, non-intrusive, unobtrusive devices that can be surface-mounted on existing structures or inserted between the layers of new composite structures. The PWAS can be used in both active and passive modes. PWAS generate and detect Lamb waves and enable the development of embedded NDE concepts. This paper will present two embedded NDE concepts based on the PWAS technology and Lamb waves approach. The first concept utilizes traveling Lamb waves and could be described as embedded ultrasonics. It is shown that embedded PWAS are able to reproduce most of the conventional ultrasonic techniques, such as pitch-catch, pulse-echo, and phased array. Several experiments using Lamb waves traveling in thin-wall structures are presented.