Abstract
There are compelling needs to develop and install smart online monitoring and diagnostic tools for complex dynamic systems. Automated internal diagnostics and prognostics will help to extend service and design lives for new and aging aircraft, civil infrastructure, mission critical aerospace structures, automotive systems, and industrial machinery. The most innovative aspects of a proposed approach to smart structural diagnostics using nonlinear analysis (sDNA) are discussed here including the sensor array architecture and networked processing platform. A diagnostic technique using transmissibility functions is described for pinpointing the location and extent of damage. Since damage is spatial in nature, these transmissibility functions are well suited for analyzing either passive operating data or active forced response data. Strain gauges installed in sensor array packets are described as ideal for monitoring usage and characterizing damage while accommodating nonlinearity and uncertainty in the system and boundary conditions.
