Feasibility of Model-Assisted Probability of Detection Principles for Structural Health Monitoring Systems Based on Guided Waves for Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Abstract

In many industrial sectors, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is considered as an addition to Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) that can reduce maintenance effort during lifetime of a technical facility, structural component or vehicle. A large number of SHM methods is based on ultrasonic waves, whose properties change depending on structural health. However, the wide application of SHM systems is limited due to the lack of suitable methods to assess their reliability. The evaluation of the system performance usually refers to the determination of the Probability of Detection (POD) of a test procedure. Up to now, only few limited methods exist to evaluate the POD of SHM systems, which prevent them from being standardised and widely accepted in industry. The biggest hurdle concerning the POD calculation is the large amount of samples needed. A POD analysis requires data from numerous identical structures with integrated SHM systems. Each structure is then damaged at different locations and with various degrees of severity. All of this is connected to high costs. Therefore, one possible way to tackle this problem is to perform computer-aided investigations. In this work, the POD assessment procedure established in NDT according to the Berens model is adapted to guided wave-based SHM systems. The approach implemented here is based on solely computer-aided investigations. After efficient modelling of wave propagation phenomena across an automotive component made of a carbon fibre-reinforced composite, the POD curves are extracted. Finally, the novel concept of a POD map is introduced to look into the effect of damage position on system reliability.

Evaluating the Probability of Detection Capability of Permanently Installed Sensors Using a Structural Integrity Informed Approach

“…The methodology of obtaining the spatial POD map outlined in this section closely resembles that of model-assisted probability of detection (MAPOD) as implemented in the CIVA software [14,15], and is also similar to the adaptation for permanently installed sensors proposed recently by Tschöke et al [13]. An aim of MAPOD is to evaluate the anticipated probability of detection, including uncertainty, of a measurement procedure by considering various sources of variability.…”

“…The effect of defect location on the detection capability of a permanently installed sensor has been studied in previous literature [10], and is similarly studied as an optimisation problem for sensor network placement in structural health monitoring [11,12]. A recent study has also been conducted to adapt the POD assessment procedure of NDE inspection techniques for permanently installed sensors using modelassisted methods [13]. However, to the knowledge of the authors, an approach that combines this information with structural integrity information on the probability of defect location has yet to be developed.…”

Impact of Structural Health Monitoring on Aircraft Operating Costs by Multidisciplinary Analysis

“…However, the industrial deployment within such a field is still limited mainly due to the concerns about the reliability assessment and the real achievable benefit in aviation. The former issue is inherent to the specific technique adopted to estimate the actual condition of the airframe and it is dealt with through a tight collaboration between experts in the domain of SHM and reliability [ 2 ]. On the other hand, the latter query requires such a multidisciplinary analysis accounting for the effects induced by SHM integration at aircraft level and including a roadmap for its efficient implementation.…”

Model-Assisted Guided-Wave-Based Approach for Disbond Detection and Size Estimation in Honeycomb Sandwich Composites

“…Recently, model-based approaches have been developed to estimate the probability of detection for characterizing SHM techniques [17][18][19][20]. The most common numerical modelling of the phenomenon of GW in HSCs found in the literature is a calculation of the effective material properties of the honeycomb structure by the homogenisation process [2,[21][22][23][24].…”