Effect of Piezo Sensor Design on EM Impedance-Based Process Monitoring and Guided Wave Based Structural Health Monitoring for Cryogenic Composite Propellant Tanks

Within this work, different sensor designs were analyzed with respect to EM impedance-based process monitoring and guided wave based structural health monitoring. Therefore, fully coupled piezo-structural harmonic and transient FE simulation are performed on the different sensor designs to assess the change of the EM impedance before and after curing and guided wave propagation and defect interaction in composite plates. The simulation results are experimentally validated by EM impedance measurements before and during curing and the measurement of the response of the bonded sensors during guided wave propagation and defect interaction on composite plates.