Pitch-catch Active Sensing Methods in Structural Health Monitoring for Aircraft Structures

Time reversal of ultrasonic fields represents a way to focus through an inhomogeneous medium. This may be accomplished by a time-reversal mirror (TRM) made from an array of transmit-receive transducers that respond linearly and allow the incident acoustic pressure to be sampled. The pressure field is then time-reversed and re-emitted. This process can be used to focus through inhomogeneous media on a reflective target that behaves as an acoustic source after being insonified. The time-reversal approach is introduced in a discussion of the classical techniques used for focusing pulsed waves through inhomogeneous media (adaptive time-delay techniques). Pulsed wave time-reversal focusing is shown using reciprocity valid in inhomogeneous medium to be optimal in the sense that it realizes the spatial-temporal matched filter to the inhomogeneous propagation transfer function between the array and the target. The research on time-reversed wave fields has also led to the development of new concepts that are described: time-reversal cavity that extends the concept of the TRM, and iterative time-reversal processing for automatic sorting of targets according to their reflectivity and resonating of extended targets.

The interaction of individual Lamb waves with a variety of defects simulated by notches is investigated using finite-element analysis, and the results are checked experimentally. Excellent agreement is obtained. It is shown that a 2-D Fourier transform method may be used to quantify Lamb wave interactions with defects. The sensitivity of individual Lamb waves to particular notches is dependent on the frequency-thickness product, the mode type and order, and the geometry of the notch. The sensitivity of the Lamb modes a(1), alpha(0), and s(0) to simulated defects in different frequency-thickness regions is predicted as a function of the defect depth to plate thickness ratio and the results indicate that Lamb waves may be used to find notches when the wavelength to notch depth ratio is on the order of 40. Transmission ratios of Lamb waves across defects are highly frequency dependent.