Electromechanical impedance based structural health monitoring measuring system in the millisecond timescale

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a proven method for damage detection of static, slowly changing structures. However, there is a need to monitor structures in dynamic environments where damage may occur at much faster rates requiring evaluation in the microsecond to millisecond timescale (far below current measurement speeds). In recent years, advances in new SHM methods (along with data acquisition hardware and software) have opened the door to the measurement speeds necessary for continuously evaluating structures in dynamic environments. The electromechanical impedance (EMI) method offers excellent damage detection ability, and new electrical impedance measurement techniques have dramatically reduced the time of measurement. There are many areas that require further research to develop a fully functional microsecond SHM program using the EMI method. However, the current state of the art allows for preliminary testing for developing the algorithmic process necessary for a SHM program for continuous monitoring. This work discusses and develops the algorithmic process in a proof of concept program with LabVIEW. The program is tested in with an experiment to simulate damage as a change in boundary condition of a beam. Results indicate the program successfully completed the algorithmic process from raw data at an average of 20.47 ms on an Intel® Core™ i7-4470 processor on a 64-bit Windows 10 operating system (OS) with 8.00 GB of random-access memory (RAM) with a LabVIEW 2018 SP1 64-bit program, yielding tremendous promise and a foundation for more efficient future programs.