Load monitoring and compensation strategies for guided-waves based structural health monitoring using piezoelectric transducers

Accurate interpretation of in-situ piezoelectric sensor signals is a challenging task. This paper presents the development of a numerical compensation model based on physical insight to address the influence of structural loads on piezo-sensor signals. The model requires knowledge of in-situ strain and temperature distribution in a structure while acquiring piezoelectric sensor signals. The parameters of the numerical model are obtained using experiments on flat aluminum plate under uniaxial tensile loading. It is shown that the model parameters obtained experimentally can be used for different structures, and sensor layout. Furthermore, the combined effects of load and temperature on the piezo-sensor response are also investigated and it is observed that both of these factors have a coupled effect on the sensor signals. It is proposed to obtain compensation model parameters under a range of operating temperatures to address this coupling effect. An important outcome of this study is a new load monitoring concept using in-situ piezoelectric sensor signals to track changes in the load paths in a structure.