Sensors (Feb 2020)

The Design and Verification of an Active SAMSR Ultrasonic Guided Wave Monitoring System with Ultra-Low Crosstalk

  • Wendong Xue,
  • Mengjiao Yang,
  • Deming Hong,
  • Di Wu,
  • Yishou Wang,
  • Xinlin Qing

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s20030898
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 3
p. 898

Abstract

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Due to long propagation distance and high sensitivity to a variety of damages, ultrasonic guided wave technologies have been widely applied in the damage detection or health monitoring of pipe networks and large plate-like structures. However, there are two important problems to be solved when applying this technology; namely, the large scanning time required for monitoring large-scaled structures and the serious crosstalk between the actuation and receiving signals, especially when monitoring hot-spot regions. Therefore, this study mainly designed key parts, such as the matrix switcher and attenuation circuit. The single-actuation and multiple-simultaneous-reception (SAMSR) mechanism based on an analog switching matrix and a low noise charge amplifier circuit was designed and integrated with the SPI control bus to shorten the scanning time. Moreover, a two-stage attenuation circuit with an interlocking isolation structure is presented to effectively isolate the receiving signals from the actuation signals to obtain ultra-low crosstalk even under a high voltage actuation source. In this study, the designed matrix switcher and other components were integrated into the developed ultrasonic guided wave monitoring system. Several experiments were conducted on a stiffened composite structure to illustrate the effectivity of the developed SAMSR ultrasonic guided wave system by comparing the signals collected with those from a commercial ultrasonic guided wave system.

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