Multilevel structural health monitoring of real scale aerostructures using guided waves

This paper presents the implementation of a multi-level structural health monitoring approach on a real scale wing box affected by barely visible impact damage. Integrated sensors data is considered to systematically design a comprehensive structural health monitoring system for impact detection and related-damage characterization in complex aerostructures. The conceived approach relies on an integrated and optimized acquisition system and a multi-level diagnosis algorithm, including impact detection as well as damage identification, localization and sizing. The use of different excitation and sensing smart points deployed all over the wing structures is explored towards continuous health management. The first results using piezoelectric transducers and guided ultrasonic waves for damage detection and localization are discussed, showing the promising approach in detecting low velocity impacts as well as characterizing barely visible damage.