Validation and verification of FE models of piezo based SHM systems

Abstract

The idea of generating and sensing Lamb waves through piezoelectric sensor/actuator configurations is common for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications. Methods using time of flight analysis require the prediction of the first incoming waves. Computations on small periodic patterns are shown to be usable to determine which waves will actually be relevant. For the considered applications, these are the first membrane waves propagating at fairly high speeds. Parametric FEM computations are then used to analyze important parameters (mesh size, time step, damping) and it is shown that accurate predictions can be obtained in a few CPU minutes.