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Review
. 2019 Jan 28;19(3):545.
doi: 10.3390/s19030545.

Piezoelectric Transducer-Based Structural Health Monitoring for Aircraft Applications

Xinlin Qing  1 , Wenzhuo Li  2 , Yishou Wang  3 , Hu Sun  4
Affiliations
Review

Piezoelectric Transducer-Based Structural Health Monitoring for Aircraft Applications

Xinlin Qing et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is being widely evaluated by the aerospace industry as a method to improve the safety and reliability of aircraft structures and also reduce operational cost. Built-in sensor networks on an aircraft structure can provide crucial information regarding the condition, damage state and/or service environment of the structure. Among the various types of transducers used for SHM, piezoelectric materials are widely used because they can be employed as either actuators or sensors due to their piezoelectric effect and vice versa. This paper provides a brief overview of piezoelectric transducer-based SHM system technology developed for aircraft applications in the past two decades. The requirements for practical implementation and use of structural health monitoring systems in aircraft application are then introduced. State-of-the-art techniques for solving some practical issues, such as sensor network integration, scalability to large structures, reliability and effect of environmental conditions, robust damage detection and quantification are discussed. Development trend of SHM technology is also discussed.

Keywords: aircraft; damage detection; piezoelectric transducer; sensor network; structural health monitoring.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Composition of piezoelectric sensor network based SHM system.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Basic configuration of sensor layer [17].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Sensor layers mounted on the surfaces of metallic and composite structures.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Sensor layers embedded inside composite structure during different manufacturing process (adapted from [18,19]).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Diagram of the integrated active diagnostic hardware (adapted from [21]).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Principle of wave propagation-based SHM.
Figure 7
Figure 7
SMD equivalent model considering bondline.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Principle of the EMI method.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Principle of impact monitoring.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The principle of model-based methods.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Architecture of integrated SHM.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Expandable multifunctional sensor network.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Integrated three-step method to automatically detect faulty sensors.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Probable damage sizing using statistical methods.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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