The Non-Destructive Evaluation/Structural Health Monitoring (NDE/SHM) Laboratory hosts experimental and computational facilities dedicated to the health monitoring of structural components and structural systems. Methods investigated include non-contact NDE techniques for high-speed inspections and structural health monitoring techniques based on permanently-attached sensors.

Work in the laboratory is both experimentally and numerically based. Salient equipment available in the NDE/SHM Lab include: three vibration-isolated tables, two high-power Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers, various CW lasers and interferometers, several high-speed data acquisition systems, full collection of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers including piezoelectric, air-coupled and magnetostrictive sensors, two RITEC systems for high-power ultrasonic testing, 8-channel Acoustic Emission system, modal testing equipment and two high-speed (1000 fps) digital cameras.

Current activities are focused on NDE/SHM applications that use acoustic or ultrasonic waves as the probing element, particularly in guided wave applications (plates, rods, joints, cables). The NDE/SHM Laboratory works closely with the Charles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories in those studies requiring large-scale testing capabilities.

 

CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS (METHODS):

• Active Guided Ultrasonic Testing (Actuator-Sensor)
• Passive Guided Ultrasonic Testing (Sensor-Only; Acoustic Emission)
• Sensor Development for Smart Structures (PZT, MFC and Magneto-strictive)
• Sensor Development for Non-contact High-Speed Inspections (Laser, Air-coupled)
• Damage-sensitive Feature Extraction by Wavelet Analysis
• Statistical Damage Recognition by Unsupervised and Supervised Learning

 

CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS (APPLICATIONS):

• Cables and Tendons in Civil Structures
• Adhesively-bonded Joints in Aerospace Structures
• Railroad Tracks
• Composite Structures
• Pipeline Structures

 

CURRENT LAB PARTICIPANTS:

• Professor Francesco Lanza di Scalea (mail-to) (Director)
• Dr. Ivan Bartoli (Project Scientist)
• Dr. Stefano Coccia (Project Scientist)
• Dr. Salvatore Salamone (Post-Doctoral Fellow)
• Ankit Srivastava (Ph.D. candidate)
• Arun Manohar (Ph.D. candidate)
• Robert Phillips (Ph.D. candidate)
• Marzia Mezzanotte (visiting scholar from University of Palermo)
• Patrizia Di Leo (visiting scholar from University of Palermo)

 

PAST LAB PARTICIPANTS:

• Howard Matt (Ph.D. 2007, now Project Engineer at ATA Engineering, San Diego)
• Giuseppina Vitale (visiting scholar from Technical University of Bari, 2007)
• Piervincenzo Rizzo (Ph.D. 2003, now Assistant Professor at University of Pittsburgh)
• John McNamara (Ph.D. 2003, now Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University)
• Alessandro Marzani (M.S. 2004, now Assistant Professor at University of Bologna)
• Gaetano Restivo (M.S. 2004)
• Joshua Robinson (M.S. 2002)
• Timothy Agnew, M.S. 2002
• Salvatore Salamone (visiting scholar from University of Palermo)
• Elisa Sorrivi (visiting scholar from University of Bologna, 2004)
• Daniel Tuzzeo (visiting scholar from University of Palermo, 2001)
• Massimo Bonomo (visiting scholar from University of Palermo, 2001)
• Gabriel Jen (undergraduate research assistant, 2003/04)
• Timothy Alexander (undergraduate research assistant, 2003)
• Michael Palmer (undergraduate research assistant, 2001)

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS OF THE NDE/SHM LAB:

1.  “Health Monitoring of Multi-strand Steel Tendons and Cable Stays for Civil Structures” funded by the National Science Foundation
2. “On-line High-speed Rail Defect Detection” funded by the Department of Transportation/Federal Railroad Administration
3. “Structural Integrity Monitoring of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles-UAV Composite Wings” (with Conte and Kosmatka-UCSD) funded by the Los Alamos National Laboratory-UCSD Educational Collaboration
4.  "Sensing System for Quantitative Health Assessment of Bonded Components in Smart Aircraft Structures” (with Park-LANL) funded by the UCSD/Los Alamos National Laboratory CARE Program
5. "Health Monitoring to Detect Failure of Prestressing Cables in Segmental Box-girder Bridges” funded by the California Department of Transportation
6. “Apparatus for the Inspection of Pipes and Tubes” funded by the UCSD Von Liebig Center

SELECTED PAST RESEARCH PROJECTS OF THE NDE/SHM LAB:

1. "Acoustic Emission monitoring of tendons and cables" funded by Caltrans as part of the I-5/Gilman Advanced Technology Bridge Project
2. "Bond inspection by ultrasonic guided waves" funded by the UCSD Hellman Faculty Fellowship Award and the UCSD Academic Senate
3. "Shearography for full-field inspection of bonds"