Impact location, energy, and damage detection in a smart structure

A sensor at a fixed location in a complex structure records a complicated but unique wave pattern containing information about impact location, imparted energy and any damage created by an impact event. An intelligently designed hybrid neural network system is capable of extracting this information from the sensory signal. Such a system based on a generalized regression neural network (GRNN) is described for the purpose of impact location, energy, and damage detection. A Northrop Grumman test article is utilized to demonstrate capabilities of the system. The system performance evaluation based on the preliminary experiments is very encouraging. Further experimental evaluations of the system are planned and are described in this manuscript.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.