Modelling of health monitoring signals and detection areas for aerospace structures

This paper is focused on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for aerospace use. It analyses the performance of commercially available finite element (FE) software packages for the simulation of propagation of ultrasonic guided waves (UGW) in typical aerospace structures. The purpose of the research is to support activities leading to the introduction of UGW based health monitoring on aerospace structures, as well as to support the design of future structures with integrated health monitoring. Activities are demonstrated on panels with growing complexity (adding different materials, sensors, damage types etc.). FE simulations are used to identify “detection areas” of UGW sensors. This output can be directly applied to the design of future aerospace structures with an integrated SHM system (to ensure the proper planning of the placement of UGW sensors).