Structural health monitoring by extraction of coherent guided waves from diffuse fields

Recent theoretical and experimental studies in a wide range of applications have demonstrated that Green's functions (impulse responses) can be extracted from cross-correlation of diffuse fields using only passive sensors. This letter demonstrates the passive-only reconstruction of coherent Lamb waves (dc-500 kHz) in an aluminum plate of thickness comparable to aircraft fuselage and wing panels. It is further shown that the passively reconstructed waves are sensitive to the presence of damage in the plate as it would be expected in a typical active guided wave test. This proof-of-principle study suggests the potential for a structural health monitoring method for aircraft panels based on passive ultrasound imaging reconstructed from diffuse fields. (c) 2008 Acoustical Society of America.