UC San Diego

The detection and localization of damage using an array of closely spaced transducers is investigated theoretically and experimentally using single- and multiple-mode guided wave active sensing models. Detectors are derived using a generalized likelihood ratio approach assuming that amplitude, absolute phase, and source location of a scattered wave are unknown, while frequency, group velocity, and phase velocity are known. Theoretical detection performance for processing with each detector is derived and related to the energy-to-noise ratio of a scattered mode as a metric of determining when processing with multiple modes provides increased performance over processing with a single mode. Experimentally, detectors are implemented to detect scattering from a small mass glued to the surface of an aluminum plate with a 7 × 7 array of transducers. Relative detection and localization performance is compared through receiver operating characteristic curves and histograms of distance from true damage location for 1000 no-damage and damaged measurements. A single-mode, multi-frequency detector is shown to have the best detection and localization performance for the tested damage scenarios. © The Author(s) 2013.