Damage Localization in a Stiffened Composite Panel Using a Lamb Wave Based Tomography Approach

In structural health monitoring (SHM) of aerospace components, such as stiffened panels, detection and localization of damage is an important issue. This paper presents a methodology for determining the existence and location of low velocity impact damage in a stiffened composite panel. Using a matching pursuit decomposition algorithm, converted modes due to damage were extracted in the time-frequency domain. The energy of the converted mode was then used in conjunction with a probabilistic tomography approach that was able to localize the damage with a high level of accuracy. The results obtained confirm the ability of this approach to detect and localize damage in complex composite structures.