Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures using embedded PZT Sensors in Space Application

Abstract

The use of composite structures in the space domain has increased significantly over the past years owing to its high strength to weight ratio. Because of the criticality and huge amount of money associated with these missions, there is an urgent requirement to monitor the structural integrity and its degradation by novel SHM techniques.In this paper we use ultrasonic guided wave technology and study the different possibilities of embedding piezoelectric sensors (PZT) into the carbon composites made by filament winding. We demonstrate the sensing capabilities of our developed sensor system to damages which can arise due to any accidental low-energy impact. A series of lab test was conducted on composite coupons to inspect the ability of PZT sensors to detect individual damages with high probability based on their distance from the impact location. The results show that PZT sensors are very promising in detecting all the damages caused by impacts with varying energies and can be a possible answer to needs of the structural health monitoring and non-destructive evaluation of advanced space structures.