Optimal Sensor Placement for Modal-Based Health Monitoring of a Composite Structure

Abstract

Optimal sensor placement is one of the important issues in monitoring the condition of structures, which has a major influence on monitoring system performance and cost. Due to this, it is still an open problem to find a compromise between these two parameters. In this study, the problem of optimal sensor placement was investigated for a composite plate with simulated internal damage. To solve this problem, different sensor placement methods with different constraint variants were applied. The advantage of the proposed approach is that information for sensor placement was used only from the structure’s healthy state. The results of the calculations according to sensor placement methods were subsets of possible sensor network candidates, which were evaluated using the aggregation of different metrics. The evaluation of selected sensor networks was performed and validated using machine learning techniques and visualized appropriately. Using the proposed approach, it was possible to precisely detect damage based on a limited number of strain sensors and mode shapes taken into consideration, which leads to efficient structural health monitoring with resource savings both in costs and computational time and complexity.

Optimal Sensor Placement in Composite Circular Cylindrical Shells for Structural Health Monitoring

“…The number of sensors and their location can be specified as the design parameters taking into account various constraints, which may include the boundary conditions, sensor sizes, etc. This method was tested on a composite plate and demonstrated good results [32].…”

Monitoring of Damage in Composite Structures Using an Optimized Sensor Network: A Data-Driven Experimental Approach

“…Systematic studies on the detection of delamination in PMCs using the optimized sensor network demonstrated satisfactory results. The novel data-driven experimental approach proposed in this study, which was an improvement to previous computational results [ 15 ], is robust to measurement noise and reveals a high effectiveness in damage detection due to the applied combination of both numerical and experimental results in the learning algorithm. The developed data-driven approach falls into the current trends in the development of SHM systems, a concept which was recently used, e.g., by the authors of [ 23 ].…”

“…As discussed in our previous study [ 15 ], the oldest and most widespread SHM approach is based on monitoring the vibration response of a structure, which is considered in many applications, including composite beams [ 16 ] and plates [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. An overview of the variety of approaches to the problem of optimal sensor placement (OSP) in vibration-based SHM presented in [ 15 ] clearly shows the necessity of developing effective algorithms focused on minimizing the number of sensors in the measurement network without losing the quality and accuracy of structural damage. The fundamentality of solving an OSP problem in SHM systems is underlined in many recent studies; see, e.g., [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”

“…In our previous study [ 15 ], we focused on the appropriate selection of sensor network. The networks were a result of the application of different algorithms of optimal sensor networks, which were evaluated using some of the criteria.…”

“…These include the presence of measurement noise, changes in boundary and environmental conditions of a tested object, numerous aspects related to the manufacturing process of composite structures and the resulting homogeneity of material properties, which may affect the correctness of the damage detection procedure, and many others. In contrast to previous research studies presented in [ 15 ], which were focused on the selection of the most effective OSP procedure and based on numerical simulations only, in this study, we focus on the experimental implementation of the selected procedure. Systematic studies on the detection of delamination in PMCs using the optimized sensor network demonstrated satisfactory results.…”