Localization of impact on composite plates based on integrated wavelet transform and hybrid minimization algorithm

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite material has been widely used in engineering structures due to its outstanding physical properties. However, the susceptibility to internal damage caused by the low-velocity impact event is a critical problem and monitoring of impact is essential for the integrity and reliability of CFRP structures. An integrated impact localization scheme is proposed and validated in this paper. The scheme is based on the arrival time obtained by wavelet transform (WT) analysis of signals received by dynamic strain gauges, triangulation localization technique together with a proposed hybrid particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) algorithm. The proposed localization scheme is validated by experimental testing of two CFRP plates with cross-ply [0/90]4s and symmetrical stacking [0/45/90/−45/0/90/−45/0]s respectively. The calculated impact locations are generally in agreement with the testing impact locations with acceptable accuracy for engineering application.