Optimal Sensor Placement for Damage Detection Based on Ultrasonic Guided Wave

In this work a methodology for effective positioning of sensors and actuators for damage detection and characterisation is described. The novelty of the proposed methodology is that the fitness function to be optimised does not contain probability of detection (POD) which needs to be obtained for every possible sensor combination. The proposed fitness function is to provide the maximum coverage of the structure via Lamb waves and reduce the negative effects of boundary reflections. Once the fitness function is defines, genetic algorithm (GA) is used as an optimisation strategy to result in optimal sensor positioning.