Health Monitoring of Civil and Aerospace Structural Components by Guided Ultrasonic Waves

Guided Ultrasonic Waves (GUWs) used in the hundreds of kilohertz range provide the ability to perform damage detection and quantification in structural components having a finite cross-sectional area. These include plates, shells, rods, pipes, etc. Compared to “global” Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods, GUWs offer larger sensitivity to small defects owing to the smaller probing wavelengths. Compared to “local” SHM methods such as those based on bulk ultrasonic waves, GUWs offer larger coverage by exploiting the waveguide geometries and allow for continuous structural monitoring. This paper summarizes research activities in GUW structural monitoring ongoing at the University of California, San Diego, which are being conducted in collaboration with the U