Indicator kriging for damage position prediction by the use of electromechanical impedance-based structural health monitoring

Some nondestructive techniques of the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) have improved their analysis in the past decades. Among them, the electromechanical impedance-based SHM technique (EMI-SHM) has been tested in several fields and associated to different statistical methodologies. Considering the nature of the spatial variation of the damage metric data along structures, herein is proposed the use of the indicator kriging method for predicting the existence of a known damage located in the center of an aluminum plate. Maps showing the probability of the damage metric to fall in several value ranges were capable of outlining the areas affected by the damage and predict its location. Comparisons between scenarios with different spacing between PZT patches showed a reduction in the reliability of the model with the increasing of such spacing. Also, for the structure under study, it demonstrates that it is not possible to obtain results by the methodology for distance between sensors/actuators greater than 16.67 cm. However, the results show that this approach can be a viable alternative for using damage metrics to map regions affected by damage and its location.