Statistics-based baseline-free approach for rapid inspection of delamination in composite structures using ultrasonic guided waves

Delamination in composite structures is characterized by a resonant cavity wherein a fraction of an ultrasonic guided wave may be trapped. Based on this wave trapping phenomenon, we propose a baseline-free statistical approach for the identification and localization of delamination using sparse sampling and density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) technique. The proposed technique can be deployed for rapid inspection with minimal human intervention. The Performance of the proposed technique in terms of its ability to determine the precise location of such defects is quantified through the probability of detection measurements. The robustness of the proposed technique is tested through extensive simulations consisting of different random locations of defects on flat plate structures with different sizes and orientation as well as different values of signal to noise ratio of the simulated data. The simulation results are also validated using experimental data and the results are found to be in good agreement.