Early Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox

Structures using Hilbert-Huang Transform and

Genetic Algorithm

H.G. Chen,** Y.J. Yan, W.H. Chen,** J.S. Jiang, L. Yu and Z.Y. WU

School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northwestern

Polytechnic University, Xian, 710072, PR China; **School of Mechanical and
Automation Control, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, PR China

A vibration-based approach to detect crack damage for large structural systems by using the
HilbertHuang transform (HHT) has been proposed. The proposed method has been numerically
implemented on a composite wingbox. In the implementation process, the following steps have been
identified as being important: (a) An optimization procedure is developed by genetic algorithm (GA) in
order to determine the location of piezoelectric sensor for damage detection in a composite wingbox;
(b) To solve the end effect problem of empirical mode decomposition (EMD), axis-symmetry signal
extension method is introduced; (c) Finally, a damage detection method by using HHT is developed.
Furthermore, the effect of noise is considered. Examination of the results confirms that the
identification method is very robust.

Keywords genetic algorithm
HilbertHuang transform
empirical mode decomposition

intrinsic mode function
damage detection

1 Introduction conventional materials, and the increasing use of

Fiber-reinforced composite materials possess
advantages of low weight, high stiffness, high
strength, and fatigue resistance compared to
metallic alloys, and they may be more extensively
used in future for primary components of aircraft
structures. However, fiber-reinforced composites
have several disadvantages. For example, it is
more possible to produce damage in their manu-
facturing and usage processes. Failures and
damage of composite structures, especially air-
craft structures, may cause tragic consequences.
Furthermore, the failure mechanisms of compo-
sites are much more complicated than that of
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: chen8025@126.com
Figure 7 and 9 appears in color online: http://shm.sagepub.com
composite materials in engineering structures has
brought many new problems for maintenance.
Therefore, fiber-reinforced composites damage
detection has become a very important issue.
In recent years, the study of smart material
structures has got great progress. A smart struc-
ture is the one that can sense its internal state
and the external environment, and based on the
information gained responds in a manner that can
realize structural vibration and noise control,
health monitoring, etc. In order to assure struc-
tural safe operation using health monitoring
systems, some sensors need to be installed on the
Copyright SAGE Publications 2007
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore
Vol 6(4): 028117
[1475-9217 (200712) 6:4;28117 10.1177/1475921707081970]

281

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282 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)
detected structures. Sensor data are the basis for
health assessment of complex structural systems.
Careful selection and logical layout of sensors
is crucial to enable the high reliability of system
health assessment. Although how to select and
collocate these sensors has been widely researched,
there is still considerable uncertainty in determin-
ing the number of the required sensors and their
locations for acquirement of reliable information
which can indicate structural behavior. Therefore,
optimum sensor location still is an important issue
associated with damage detection, and it needs to
be well explored for practical application.
In structural damage detection, how to collo-
cate sensors is an optimum issue. The genetic
algorithm (GA) arithmetic is a reliable and avail-
able universal optimum methodology. The GA is
formulated by generating a series of binary enco-
ded DNA chromosomes, which make the initial
population. Each chromosome contains a string of
genes, which represent each design variable in the
optimization problem. The length of the binary
string depends on the size of the design variable.
Each chromosome in the population is evaluated
by the fitness function and the fitness value is
assigned to that chromosome. The chromosomes
with the largest fitness value are kept in the
population and transferred to the next generation.
These chromosomes are then combined (crossover)
to reproduce additional members (offspring),
which replace the least fit (low fitness value)
chromosomes in the population. This process is
continued until the predefined maximum number
of generations is reached. The progression of the
GA steps ensures an increase in the average fitness
of the population with each generation. The GA
arithmetic is often used in determining collocation
of sensors. Ostachawicz et al. [1] demonstrated the
use of GA in damage detection using a damage
index as the fitness function. Staszweski et al. [2]
used GA to place sensors on a grid for damage
detection. Chun et al. [3] used GA in damage
detection using optical imaging methods. Friswell
et al. [4] applied GA to predict the location and to
estimate the extent of the damage using discrete
elements on the structures.
For online damage detection of composite
structures, a wide range of studies have been
developed in the last years so that it is possible to
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ensure safety and reliability of composite struc-
tures in their usages. Among the developed
techniques of online damage detection for compo-
site structures, a vibration-based method may be
a promising one. Many works [5,6] have demon-
strated the feasibility of vibration-based method.
Many researches on structural damage detection
using the online measured structural vibration
responses have been carried out [79]. Hou et al.
used the characteristics of the wavelet trans-
formation of simulated vibration response signal
generated from a simple structural model sub-
jected to a harmonic excitation. They showed a
great promise of the wavelet approach for damage
detection and structural health monitoring. Zhang
et al. adopted vibration measurements to detect
structural damage using transmittance function
monitoring, and the parameters used for damage
detection were computed from different types of
measured structural responses. Yan et al. used
piezoelectric patches embedded in composite plate
and the energy distribution of structural dynamic
responses decomposed in various frequency bands
by wavelet packet analysis to detect the local and
tiny delamination in a laminated composite plate.
However, this kind of study on composite aircraft
structures has not been reported so far.
Recently, a new timefrequency analysis
method named as HilbertHuang transform
(HHT) [1012] has been more and more widely
used in signal processing. Quek et al. [13] have
presented comparisons of HilbertHuang, wavelet,
and Fourier transforms for selected applications.
HHT is a newly developed powerful method for
nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis.
This technique works through performing a time
adaptive decomposition operation named as
empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to the
signal to be processed. And then the signal will be
decomposed into a set of complete and almost
orthogonal components named as intrinsic mode
function (IMF), which is almost mono-component.
Utilizing Hilbert transform (HT) on those obtained
IMFs, one can get an elaborate energyfrequency
time distribution of the signal, i.e., HHT spectrum.
One advantage of the EMD method is that it is
the best way to deal with the intermittent signals
so far because it can present the local character
better than the wavelet method [14]. Hence, it is
 Chen et al.
possible that HHT may become a potential tool
for online detection of structural damage.
In the present work, a dynamic model of one
free composite aircraft wingbox is established
using ANSYS software, and one piezoelectric
patch sensor is bonded on a composite wingbox
for obtaining the dynamic responses of the
wingbox. And a GA is used to solve the complex
problem of finding the optimum location of
piezoelectric patch sensors bonded on a compo-
site wingbox with damage. The vibration
responses of intact and damaged structures are
numerically obtained. Then, the vibration
responses are processed using HHT to extract the
feature index vectors of composite aircraft wing-
box with different damage status. The EMD is
the key part of HHT. However, there are still
some limitations in the existing EMD algorithm.
This study presents some improvements on EMD
algorithm using axis-symmetry signal extension
(ASSE) to handle the end effect of EMD so that
it can be effectively used for damage identifica-
tion to a given structural model. The example
results show that a set of technique proposed in
this study is feasible and valid in damage detec-
tion of composite structures.
2 Vibration Responses of Winbox
Structures with Damage
2.1 Piezoelectric Equation of a
Piezoelectric Laminated
Composite Model
For the piezoelectric patches bonded on the
composite model as sensors and actuator, the
direct and converse piezoelectric equations with
respect to the x  y  z reference axes can be
written as [5]:

  

p Qp f"g  eT fEg
fDg ef"g "
fEg
where {
p} and [Qp] are the stress vector and the
transformed elastic stiffness matrix of the piezo-
electric material, respectively. {E} is the electric
filed vector, {D} is the electric displacement
vector, "
 is the permittivity matrix, and [e]T is
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Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 283
the transpose of [e]. The piezoelectric stress
coefficient matrix [e] is expressed in terms of the
strain coefficient matrix [d] by the equation,
e d Qp : 3
2.2 Vibration Responses of
Wingbox Structures
In order to realize damage detection for
complex structures using extracted damage feature
index based on HHT, it is necessary to acquire in
advance the multitudinous vibration response
data of complex structures with different damage.
However, it is not realistic to get vibration
data for a practical aircraft structure with various
damages only using experimental measurement,
because it is nearly impossible to let a practical
aircraft structure experience all kinds of damage.
The feasible and effective approach is to obtain
the structural vibration response data with various
possible damages through numerical simulation.
For this purpose, a structural dynamic model is
established through vibration analysis theory and
finite element method. Thus, structural damage
feature can be obtained before the actual struc-
tural damage occurs.
It is assumed that vibration amplitude of a
composite structure is small so that the structure
is a linear vibration system [15]. Then, the
equation of motion of a structure with damage
can be written as:
Cgxt
Mxt _ Kgxt Ft 4
where x, x,
_ and x are the vectors of structural
acceleration, velocity, and displacement, respec-
tively. M and K(g) are the global mass and
stiffness matrices established using finite element
method, and F(t) is the excitation force vector
1 exerted on the structure for damage detection.
2 In Equation (4), g indicates structural damage
status. If structural damage is local and very
small, it may be a comprehensible supposition
that the damage only affects local mechanical
characters of the structure. Then, it is feasible to
assume that small local cracks merely affect the
local mechanical characters of the structure, then
284 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)
the changes of mechanical characters only occur
in one or a few elements around the damage
elements of FEM model of composite laminating
structure, but mechanical characters of other
elements keep unchanged. Therefore, one can
utilize a small change of the element stiffness
matrix with damage to indicate small damage of
a structure, thus, the global stiffness matrix K(g)
will vary with damage status g. Generally, struc-
tural damage does not accompany with increase
or decrease of structural mass, thus, one can
assume that mass matrix M is unchangeable in
FEM dynamic model of a damaged structure.
C(g) is global damping matrix, which is related to
damage status g. Since composite materials gen-
erally have large damping, its influence on the
change of modal resonance is not negligible.
However, calculation of practical damping matrix
is very complicated and difficult. For structural
vibration with small displacement, one of the
feasible methods is to adopt the assumption of
proportional damping. Then, the damping matrix
can be denoted as:
Cg M Kg
where a and b are the proportional coefficients to
be determined [13].
Equation (4) can be translated into state
governing equations as:
     
x_ 0 I x 0
x M 1 Kg M1 Cg x_ Ft
6a
i.e.,
y_ Agy ft
where,
   
x 0
y , A 1
x_ M Kg M1 Cg
 
0 expressed as:
ft :
Ft
In Equation (6b), f(t) is a determinated and
contrived excitation imposed on structures in
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order to get structural dynamic responses.
Therefore, f(t) and A(g) are known for a given
damage status of a structure. One can simulate
the structural vibration responses numerically
using the commercial software, for example,
lsim function in MATLAB toolbox.
3 Genetic Algorithm
The flowchart shown in Figure 1 illustrates
the GA procedure. The initial population is
created using a random number generator. Only
the chromosomes that meet the variable con-
straints are included in the initial population.
The goal of this study is to determine the optimal
sensor, which can detect the presence and extent
of damage located anywhere in the structure.
The design variable to be optimized is the
location of the sensor in the structure.
3.1 Fitness Function
In this study, the fitness function used in the
5 GA is the innovative which is based on the
estimated differences of output voltage values
from piezoelectric patch sensor for intact and
damaged structures. The sensor signals are
obtained using numerical simulation for the
intact and damaged wingbox structure model.
The signal is first decomposed into

multiple sub-signals in various frequency bands
: using WPA. Let Vh denote the original piezo-
electric signal of structural response. It can be
expressed as:
2k1
X
Vh t VIkj t 7
6b j1
where Vkj is the sub-signal with orthogonal
frequency band and k indicates the layer number
of the tree structure of wavelet decomposition.
I
, And let Vd denote the piezoelectric signal
of damaged structural response, it can be
2k1
X
Vd t VD
kj t: 8
j1
 Chen et al. Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 285

ngen=0 4 HilbertHuang Transform

HilbertHuang transform is composed of two

Get initial procedures, i.e., the EMD method, and the
population based
on variable
associated Hilbert spectral analysis. Huang et al.
constrains [10] proposed that one could use the EMD
technique to decompose any given signal into
a set of narrow-band signals. Each component
ngen=ng
en+1
(which may be non-stationary) of these compo-
nents is taken as an IMF of the original signal,
so HT can be carried out. Basically, the IMFs
Fitness represent the oscillatory modes embedded within
evaluation
the data where each IMF involves only one mode
of oscillation without complex riding waves.
Order
This kind of narrow-band signal (IMF) has
Chromosomes two distinct features, i.e., (1) over its entire
based on fitness length, the extremum number and the number of
zero crossings must be equal or their difference is
only one, and (2) at any point, the mean value of
Eliminated the the envelope of the signal defined by the local
least two fit
Chromosomes
maximum and the envelope defined by the local
minima is zero. The most important feature
about alternation of a given signal is the IF,
Reproduction
which can be obtained using Hilbert Transform.
By performing HT for a given signal c(t), one can
get an analytic complex signal Z(t) as:
Crossover (70%)
Zt ct iHct ateit 10

where a(t) and (t) are amplitude and phase of

Mutation (9%)
the signal, which are given by

 1=2
at c2 t H2 ct 11a
Ngen=Max  
Genearion?
Hct
t arctan : 11b
ct
Yes
No
Equation (10) is basically a polar representation of
Print most fit
solution
c(t), in terms of time-varying amplitude
and phase. Its instantaneous frequency can be
defined as:
Figure 1 Flowchart of the genetic algorithm.
dt
The fitness function F for a given chromosome $t : 12
which is a non-dimensional index is defined as: dt

v
!2 The basic technique of EMD method is the
u
2k1 uZ
X t
D
Vkj t  Vkj t I sifting process. This process is as follows:
F dt: 9 First, for a given signal X(t), all the local
j1
VIkj t
extrema need to be identified. The maxima are

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286 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)
then connected by cubic splines to form the
upper envelope, and similarly for the lower
envelope. An approximate first IMF, h1, can then
be obtained by filtering off the mean of
the envelopes, designated as m1, from the data
X(t), i.e.,
h1 Xt  m1 :
Treating h1 as a new X(t), the process (13) is
repeated until h1 is an acceptable IMF designated
as the first IMF component of the original data.
The first IMF, h1, contains the highest-frequency
component of the signal.
Second, the residual signal, r1, if given by
r1 Xt  h1
which contains information of lower-frequency
components. It is treated as a new signal to be
subjected to the same sifting process as described
above. The entire procedure is repeated until the
nth residue
rn rn1  hn
is a monotonic function where no more IMFs
can be extracted.
Mathematically, this decomposition of X(t)
can be expressed as:
X
n
Xt hj t rn t:
j1
For each IMF, HT can be carried out. However,
rn being a monotonic function may have over-
powering energy content that may affect the
resolution of the signal processing results. Hence,
neglecting the residue in (16), X(t) can be decom-
posed into time-dependent amplitude and fre-
quency modulating functions as:
X
n
Z 
Xt aj t exp i $j tdt :
j1
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5 End Data Extension Method
While implementing the HHT technique,
special attention should be paid to the problems
of spurious effects caused by the beginning and
end of real signals.
A difficult problem in applying EMD
13 technique is that spline fit at the beginning and
end of a signal can result in large swings in its
envelope, which can eventually propagate inward
and corrupt the signal, especially the low-
frequency components, as exemplified in Figure 2.
People tried to solve the above-mentioned
problem using various methods [1618], such as
a higher-order spline fit; decreasing sampling
interval either directly or by interpolation from
the spline fit; biting off the beginning and the end
14 of a signal; or based artificial neural network
[14]. But, there are many insufficiencies in these
methods. For example, the higher-order spline fit
and decreasing sampling interval will all cause
longer computing time, and this is not convenient
for online detection of structural damage.
Additionally, biting off the beginning and the end
of the signal is feasible for aiming at a longer
data serial. For a shorter data serial, it makes
15 the signal inefficient.
This study introduces a method for the
ending data extension, i.e., ASSE [19]. In the
3
2
16 1
0
1
2
3 Original signal
Upper envelope
4 Lower envelope
Mean of the envelopes
5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (Samples)
17
Figure 2 End effect due to no data extension in spline
fitting of the envelope in the sifting process.
 Chen et al. Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 287

study on structural damage detection using l sym, one gets symmetrical times as,
EMD, it is found that ASSE may be a better
method for solving ending effect of EMD. The tl max 2  tl sym  tl max1
basic procedures of ASSE are briefed as follows. 1

For a time serial ti(i 1, 2, . . . , n) and signal tl max 2  tl sym  tl max2

2
xi(i 1, 2, . . . , n), the times l maxk(1  k  n) corre- 20
tl min 2  tl sym  tl min2
sponding to all local extrema and the times 2
l minp(1  p  n) corresponding to all local mini- tl min 2  tl sym  tl min3 :
3
mum need to be identified. For the beginning of
time serial, there are four possible boundary
conditions. First condition is that if the time of Accordingly, the signal values at these times is
the first local maximum l max1 is less than the xl max1 , xl max2 , xl min2 , and xl min3 . The fourth
time of the first local minimum l min1, i.e., condition is if the time of the first local maximum
tl max15tl min1), and if x1 > xl min1 , then l max1 is l max1 is more than the time of the first local
taken as extension axis l sym. After extending minimum l min1, i.e., tl max14tl min1, and if
l max2, l max3, l min1 and l min2 about l sym, one x1 > xl max1 , then 1 is taken as extension axis
gets symmetrical times as l sym. After extending l max1, l min1, and l min1
about l sym, one gets symmetrical times as,
tl max 2  tl sym  tl max2
2 tl max 2  tl sym  tl max1
1
tl max 2  tl sym  tl max3
3 tl min 2  tl sym  tl min1
18 1
21
tl min 2  tl sym  tl min1
1 tl min 2  tl sym  tl min2 :
2
tl min 2  tl sym  tl min2 :
2

Accordingly, the signal values at these times is

Accordingly, the signal values at these times is xl max1 , xl min1 , and xl min2 . To illustrate the validity
xl max2 , xl max3 , xl min1 , and xl min2 . Second condition of ASSE, the signal in Figure 2 is disposed using
is that if the time of the first local maximum ASSE. End effect is overcome effectively, as
l max1 is less than the time of the first local exemplified in Figure 3.
minimum l min1, i.e., tl max15tl min1, and if
x1 5 xl min1 , then 1 is taken as extension axis 2.5
Original signal
l sym. After extending l max1, l max2, and l min1 Upper envelope
about l sym, one gets symmetrical times as, 2 Lower envelope
Mean of the envelopes

1.5
tl max 2  tl sym  tl max1
1
1
tl max 2  tl sym  tl max2 19
2
0.5
tl min 2  tl sym  tl min1 :
1
0

Accordingly, the signal values at these times is 0.5

xl max1 , xl max2 , and xl min1 . Third condition is that
if the time of the first local maximum l max1 is 1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
more than the time of the first local minimum Time (Samples)
l min1, i.e., tl max14tl min1, and if x1 5 xl max1 ,
then l min1 is taken as extension axis l sym. After Figure 3 End effect is overcome after data extension in
extending l max1, l max2, l min2, and l max3 about spline fitting of the envelope in the sifting process.

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288 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)

6 Extraction of Structural Damage the corresponding order of IMF and time,

Feature Index Vectors respectively. ij indicates the NIF variation of
the ith order IMF for time j and it is a
Structural vibration responses depend on measurement of the enhancement or attenuation
structural natural frequency, damping, stiffness, of instantaneous frequency.
and exciting condition. On the other hand,
various damages in a structure will cause more or
less variance of these structural parameters. 7 Results and Analysis of an
Therefore, many vibration parameters, such as Example
natural frequency, mode shape, modal damping,
can be used to detect structural damage status. 7.1 Aircraft Wingbox Description
However, some researchers [6,20] have shown
The composite specimen is a double-cells box,
that structural modal parameters are not sensitive
as shown in Figure 4(a) and (b), with composite
to tiny structural damage, and therefore this
upper and lower skins, wall, girders, and stringers.
method may not be suitable to detect the initial
The composite skins are composed of
damage in various engineering structures.
T300/QY8911 using the nominal thickness of
Some kinds of structural damage indexes
0.1mm/ply. The skins and stringers are simulated
based on HHT are extracted by Zhang et al. [21]
by using shell99 and beam188 in commercial
and Shim et al. [22]. In this study, in order to
software ANSYS, respectively. The elastic param-
extract the structural damage information from
eters of the intact composite skins are
its dynamic response signals, the signal is first
E01 150 GPa, E02 9:77 GPa, G012 4:47 GPa,
decomposed into multiple IMFs using HHT.
021 0:33, and 012 0:0215. The mass density is
Hence one can think that the total energy in the
 =1.0  103 kg/m3. The ply number of is 10
original signal can be distributed to all IMFs.
and the lay-up sequence is [445/90/45/0/45]s.
Comparing the instantaneous frequencies corre-
The materials of the wall and girders are the same
sponding to IMFs of intact structure and those
as those of skins. Two piezoelectric patches
of damaged structure, one finds that some instan-
are bonded on the composite wingbox, one is
taneous frequencies are changed obviously. Based
actuator, and the other is used to form the sensing
on this fact, an index vector defined as follows is
system for wingbox vibration. The size of the
used for damage detection in this study.
patch is 25  18  0.25 mm3, and its piezoelectric
A non-dimensional index matrix V called
variation quantity of normalized instantaneous
frequency (NIF) can be composed using NIF0ij
and NIFij (i 1, 2, . . . , t, j 1, 2, . . . , n), i.e.,

2 3
11 12


1t
6 7
6 22


1t 7
6 21 7
6 7 (a) Composite wingbox structure
V6
.. 7
22
6 .. .. .. 7 Node 3311 (optimal
6 . . . . 7 sensor location)
4 5 Damaged element 827 Node 2913 for
exposing the
n1 n2


nt existing force

NIFij
ij 1 
NIF0ij
(b) FEM of composite wingbox structure

where NIF0ij
and NIFij are normalized instanta-
neous frequencies of intact and damaged wing- Figure 4 Model and FEM of composite wingboxes
box, respectively, and subcripts i and j indicate structure.

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 Chen et al. Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 289

strain coefficients d33 285  1012 and d31 function values of all nodes of upper skin are
170 1012C/N. The elastic parameters of the computed and are shown in Figure 6. As seen
piezoelectric material Ep 65 Gpa,Gp 65 Gpa, from this figure, the maximum fitness function
p 0.3. value is 116.23. Therefore, the sensor location
predicted by the optimization algorithm appears
to be effective.
7.2 Genetic Algorithm Results
Numerical simulations have been carried out.
7.3 Structural Damage Information
In order to find the optimal location of sensor
Containing Instantaneous
and detect structural crack damage using struc-
Frequency of IMFs
tural vibration response signal, a square wave
signal with magnitude of 50V is fed into the Traditionally, changes of structural vibration
piezoelectric actuator located on node 2913 of natural frequency and modes are often taken as
the composite wingbox structure. The excitation parameters for structural health monitoring or
signal and the output signal are shown in damage detection. Therefore, the feasibility of
Figure 8. Assuming the element 827 has some detecting small structural crack using structural
damage so that the elastic parameters have some natural frequency and models will first be
decrease, i.e., it equals that the damaged area is evaluated. The first five structural natural
0.05% of the whole composite wingbox structure. frequencies and variations with crack are listed in
The response signals were calculated by perform- Table 1. Results in this table show that variation
ing a transient analysis using the finite element
analysis code and pre/post processor system
120
AYSYS.
Results are presented for the wingbox struc- 100
ture. An initial population of 10 and a maximum
Fittness function values

generation of 150 are used. The design variable is 80

sensor location. The GA solution for the design
variable is shown in Figure 5. The solution 60
predicts optimal sensor is located on node 3311,
40
shown in Figure 4(b). And the corresponding
fitness function value is 116.23. In order to 20
examine the feasibility of GA, all the fitness
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
120
All node of up skin
110
100 Figure 6 Fitness function values of all nodes of
Fitness function values

90 upper skin.
80
70
Table 1 Natural frequencies of the intact and damaged
60 wingbox.
50
Intact wingbox Damaged wingbox
40
f0 (HZ) f1 (HZ) (f1  f0)/f0%
30
1 137.514 137.514 0
20 2 232.034 232.024 4.31e-3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Number of generations 3 248.87 248.855 6.027e-3
4 297.794 297.787 2.351e-3
5 332.981 332.98 0.3e-3
Figure 5 Genetic algorithm result.

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290 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)
Model 1 137.514 HZ
Model 2 232.034 HZ
Model 3 248.87 HZ
Model 4 297.794 HZ
Figure 7 Mode shapes of intact and damaged wingboxes.
of structural vibration natural frequency is very
small, therefore, it is almost impossible to detect
small structural damage utilizing natural
frequency variations caused by local and small
damage of a structure. The first four structural
mode shapes with crack are shown in Figure 7.
Results in this figure also show that variation of
structural modes is very small. According to
these, it is shown again that variation of struc-
tural vibration natural frequency and mode
shapes is not very sensitive to small structural
damage.
Downloaded from shm.sagepub.com at UNIV AUTO DEL ESTADO DE MEXICO on March 16, 2016
Model 1 137.514 HZ
Model 2 232.024 HZ
Model 3 248.855 HZ
Model 4 297.787 HZ
The piezoelectric sensor response signals of
node 3311 which is the optimal sensor location
by GA, from the intact and damaged composite
wingboxes are shown in Figure 8. The results
also show that no obvious difference between the
time domain response signals for these two
statuses of wingboxes can be found. Finally, both
signals were decomposed into its IMF compo-
nents shown in Figure 9 using EMD. In addition,
no obvious difference can be identified from
Figure 9(a) and (b) for intact and damaged
structures. Therefore, IMFs cannot directly
 Chen et al.
Intact structure
x 107
5
Response signal
0 xnoise x RMSx
Nlevel
Nunit
5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
x 107 Damaged structure
5
Response signal
0 is the randomly generated noise vector with zero
5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Time (s)
Figure 8 Signals of node 3311 from intact and damaged
wingboxes.
indicate the damage status of the wingbox.
However, if the amplitudetime and frequency
time distributions of these IMF components are
translated using HT, so that one can obtain
amplitudetime and instantaneous frequency
time distributions of the IMFs, as shown in
Figures 10 and 11. Some obvious changes
between these two signals can be found, and this
indicates that the instantaneous frequency of the
IMFs is more sensitive to structural damage.
Variation of normalized IF between the intact
and damaged structures is shown in Figure 12(a),
and it is evident this variation can distinctly
reflect the structural damage status. The numeric
variation is shown in Table 2. From this table,
one can discover that maximum absolute value of
normalized IF variation, especially orders 3 and
5, remarkably shows the existence of structural
damage. If these sets of data are taken as the
index vector of structural damage in the given
damage location and damage severity, a complete
database containing various location and severity
of structural damage can be established using
numerical simulation, thus it will be able to serve
for online damage detection of in situ structures.
The effect of noise on the accuracy and
efficiency of the proposed method is next investi-
gated.
To simulate the real-life conditions, noise
with a standard deviation of zero is added to the
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Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 291
structural response signals [23]. The simulation of
noise is
23
where xnoise denotes the response signal with
3 random noise of zero standard deviation and
x stands for the response signal without noise,
respectively. RMS(x) is the root mean square
value of x, and Nlevel is the noise level, and Nunit
mean and unit standard deviation. In the present
study, noise level 5% will be investigated.
3 After noise level of 5% is introduced, varia-
tion of normalized IF between the intact and
damaged structures is shown in Figure 12(b).
Table 2 shows the numerical results, from which
it can be seen that the proposed index vector  is
not sensitive to noise.
8 Conclusions
An optimal sensor placement procedure has
been developed using genetic algorithm (GA) and
a finite element analysis technique. The procedure
is used to determine the optimal sensor location
for detecting damage located anywhere in a
composite wingbox. A new damage index formu-
lated using the differences in dynamic response
voltage signals, which is caused by the presence
of damage, is used as the objective function
in GA. The location of the sensor is used as the
design variable. Numerical results are obtained
for a 10-ply composite wingbox. Results show
that the proposed method is available at deter-
mining number and location of sensors for
structural damage detection using piezoelectric
patch sensors. The optimum sensor pattern can
well detect the damage in composite structure.
This study presents the possibility of online
detection for small damage of an aircraft wing-
box structure using HHT technology. By
introducing axis symmetry signal extension
(ASSE) method, the ending effect problems of
EMD are successfully solved. The structural
dynamic responses under exciting of a square
wave signal are calculated. IMFs of the dynamic
response signal are obtained using EMD method.
292 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)

104 Empirical mode decomposition of signal of intact wingbox

5

signal
0
5 4
4 10
2

imf1
0
2
4 105
2

imf2
0
2 105
1
imf3
0
1
Signal and IMFs and residue

106
5
imf4

0
5
106
5
imf5

0
5
106
2
imf6

0
2
106
4
2
imf7

0
2
4
106
2
imf8

0
2 7
5 10
0
res.

5
10
15
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

Time (s)

104
Empirical mode decomposition of signal of damaged wingbox
4
signal

2
0
2
4 104
4
2
imf1

0
2
4
105
2
imf2

0
2
105
1
imf3

0
Signal and IMFs and residue

1
106
5
imf4

0
5
106
5
imf5

0
5
106
2
imf6

0
2
106
4
2
imf7

0
2
4
106
2
imf8

0
2
107
5
0
res.

5
10
15
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

Time (s)

Figure 9 IMFs of signal from intact and damaged wingboxes.

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 Chen et al. Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 293

103 The amplitudes of IMFs of intact wingbox

1

A1
0.5
0 105
40
A2
2
0 105
20
A3

1
0 105
10
A4

0.5
0 105
10
A5

0.5
0 106
40
A6

2
0 106
50
A7

0 106
40
A8

2
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time

103 The amplitudes of IMFs of damaged wingbox

1
A1

0.5
0 105
40
A2

2
0 105
20
A3

1
0 105
10
A4

0.5
0 105
10
A5

0.5
0 106
40
A6

2
0 106
50
A7

0 106
40
A8

2
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time

Figure 10 Amplitudes of IMFs of intact and damaged wingboxes.

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294 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)

The normalized instantaneous frequencies of IMFs of intact wingbox

0.5

IF1
0
0.50

IF2
0
0.50
IF3
0
0.40
IF4

0.2
0
0.50
IF5

0
0.50
IF6

0
0.50
IF7

0
0.50
IF8

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time

The normalized instantaneous frequencies of IMFs of damaged wingbox

0.5
IF1

0
0.50
IF2

0
0.50
IF3

0
0.40
IF4

0.2
0
0.50
IF5

0
0.50
IF6

0
0.50
IF7

0
0.50
IF8

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time

Figure 11 Instantaneous frequencies of IMFs of intact and damaged wingboxes.

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 Chen et al. Damage Detection in Composite Wingbox Structures 295

(a) The variation of Instantaneous frequencies

5
0
5
100
0
10
1000
0
The variation of IFs

100
500
0
50
1000
0
100
100
0
10
50
0
5
100
0
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time, t (s)

(b) The variation of Instantaneous frequencies with noise

5
0
5
100
0
10
1000
0
100
The variation of IFs

500
0
50
1000
0
100
100
0
10
50
0
5
100
0
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time, t (s)

Figure 12 The first eight instantaneous frequencies variations corresponding to IMFs.

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296 Structural Health Monitoring 6(4)
Table 2 The maximum normalized instantaneous frequencies variation.
IMFs 1 2
Absolute maximum of normalized 4.5288 9.8085
IFs variation (%)
Absolute maximum of normalized 4.4863 9.6869
IFs variation with noise (%)
Then the instantaneous frequencies corresponding
to IMFs and damage information, i.e., the variety
quantity of NIFs V, is constructed. The obtained
results show that the extracted index vector V is
more sensitive to small damage. Furthermore, the
effect of noise is considered. Examination of the
results confirms that the identification method is
very robust. It shows that in spite of the presence
of noise, accurate results are obtained. Therefore,
the method proposed in this study is effective
for further study of the relationship between
structure damage severity, location, and the
established index vector V.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Natural Science
Foundation of China for the support under the grants
50375123 and 10472093 and the National High Technology
Research and Development Program (863 Program) of
China for the support under the grant 20060104Z4054.
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