Development of a data acquisition system for plate waves testing

• Main Author: Han, Dingzhi
• Other Authors: Guo Ningqun
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Industrial engineering::Information systems
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16243
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With the increase in usage of composites for the manufacturing of aircrafts ( 50% for Boeing 787, up from 7% for Boeing 777) and the trend set to continue, more and more attention will be focused on the structural health monitoring of the aircraft components made from these materials. One of the newer advancements under study is the usage of Lamb waves for damage detection, due to their low attenuation and long distance propagation properties. In this project, Lamb waves will be generated and detected using piezoelectric crystals, which can act as actuators and sensors. The specimen used is an 8-ply uni-directional Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer. National Instruments apparatus wired to the computer using LabVIEW as platform for control of experiment will form the bulk of the data generating and acquisition system. LabVIEW is a graphical programming language that allows user to communicate with the wired hardware in his desired fashion. The first part of the project will require the author to write programmes in LabVIEW for signal generation and data acquisition for testing of specimen using Lamb waves. The second part of the project will be actual experimentation carried out using the LabVIEW programmes on the specimen using Lamb waves, mainly to verify that the programmes and set-up are working. This report will first cover the background study conducted prior to the formulating of methodology to conduct this project. It will then demonstrate the function of the LabVIEW programmes written and how it can be used. Experimental set-up will be discussed in details. Finally, the experimental results will be shown, discussed and analysed. This report will conclude with a summary of the project and how can it be further improved or the areas for further studies.