Impact Identification Method for Structural Health Monitoring of Stiffened Composite Panels using Passive Sensing Systems

Identification of impact and its resulting damage is a complex inverse inferential procedure. Estimating the magnitude of an impact from sensor data is challenging and still needs to be fully understood. Furthermore, only a few studies have solved practical impact identification problems relevant to real-world structures with different geometries and structural inhomogeneities (e.g. variable thicknesses and stiffeners). Accordingly, the current research presents an impact categorisation analysis using passive measurements from piezoelectric (PZT) sensors for a geometrically complex composite aircraft part. Intermediate-mass impact tests were performed on a stiffened thermoplastic composite plate to generate signals representing various impact scenarios that may occur during the lifetime of an aircraft. The impacts were applied at critical locations, including the mid-bay, on top of the stringer, and at different thicknesses. This study investigated the effect of structural features on wave propagation in composite structures. The experimental results demonstrate that these features significantly change the wave field and, consequently, affect sensor readings. To differentiate between pristine and damaged states, an impact signal categorisation approach was employed. This analysis shows that a passive sensing system can categorise the impact using the transmitted energy from a time-domain signal. However, the spectral energy values showed low efficiency in categorising impacts. Overall, the results highlight the importance of considering structural features when deploying sensor systems for structural health monitoring and provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of impact identification and damage detection in realistic composite structures.