Sensors, Vol. 21, Pages 5093: Nonlinear Guided-Wave Mixing for Condition Monitoring of Bolted Joints

This study presents a theoretical development and experimental investigation into nonlinear guided-wave mixing for integrity monitoring of bolted joints in plates. Combinational harmonics generated due to nonlinear Lamb wave mixing and contact acoustic nonlinearity at the bolted joints were used to evaluate the applied torque level in the joint. The area of the power spectral density in the region of the sum combinational harmonic bandwidth is found to be highly correlated to the applied torque level at the joint. Moreover, the effect of the number of cycles and thus the time duration of the excitation is investigated. The results show that the combinational harmonics remain robust for different numbers of cycles in detecting bolt loosening. The findings presented in this study also provide physical insight into the phenomena of nonlinear Lamb wave mixing for evaluating applied torque in bolted joints, and the results help further advance the use of nonlinear guided waves for damage detection.

Source: Sensors - July 27, 2021 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Juan Carlos Pineda Allen Ching Tai Ng Tags: Article Source Type: research