Lightning Strike Damage Monitoring of Composite Structures Based on Piezoelectric-Guided Waves

Abstract

The lightning strike damage detection of composite structures has become one of the most important tasks of aircraft structural health monitoring (SHM). However, due to the complicated damage mechanism of lightning strikes, the lightning strike damages are usually detected with traditional NDT technologies, which is inapplicable for online monitoring. In this paper, a piezoelectric-guided wave imaging method to monitor lightning strike damages of composite structures is present. The damage mechanism of lightning strikes on composite structures is firstly investigated. Then, the piezoelectric-guided wave imaging method of lightning strike damages is developed. Finally, an ABAQUS simulation on a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite plate is conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed piezoelectric-guided wave imaging method.