Optimal Sensor Placement for Vibration-Based Damage Localization Using the Transmittance Function

A methodology for optimal sensor placement is presented in the current work. This methodology incorporates a damage detection framework with simulated damage scenarios and can efficiently provide the optimal combination of sensor locations for vibration-based damage localization purposes. A classic approach in vibration-based methods is to decide the sensor locations based, either directly or indirectly, on the modal information of the structure. While these methodologies perform very well, they are designed to predict the optimal locations of single sensors. The presented methodology relies on the Transmittance Function. This metric requires only output information from the testing procedure and is calculated between two acceleration signals from the structure. As such, the outcome of the presented method is a list of optimal combinations of sensor locations. This is achieved by incorporating a damage detection framework that has been developed and tested in the past. On top of this framework, a new layer is added that evaluates the sensitivity and effectiveness of all possible sensor location combinations with simulated damage scenarios. The effectiveness of each sensor combination is evaluated by calling the damage detection framework and feeding as inputs only a specific combination of acceleration signals each time. The final output is a list of sensor combinations sorted by their sensitivity.