Believe it or not but lambs are improving the safety of everything from planes to bridges and buildings.
QCIF and The University of Queensland’s mechanical engineering team are using acoustic Lamb waves for the ultrasonic testing of structures as part of a research initiative into Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). These invisible, non invasive waves create a kind of ‘echo’ that can be used to detect fatigue cracks in metallic structures which saves time, money and ultimately lives.

Lamb waves and healthy machines

Damage identification using Lamb waves can be used to define problems that would adversely affect a system’s performance.
For long term SHM, tests are periodically conducted and the information is updated regarding the ability of the structure to perform its intended function in light of the predicted aging and degradation from use and operational environments.
After events such as earthquakes SHM is used for rapid condition screening and aims to provide, in near real time, accurate information about the health of the structure

QCIF's Role

Lamb wave testing generates large data sets - far too large for a desktop or even cluster of computers to process. An image of the damage is reconstructed by analysing the cross correlation of the scatter signal envelope with the excitation pulse envelope for each transducer pair. A potential damage area is then reconstructed by superimposing the image.

Participants

Assoc Prof Martin Veidt, UQ