Abstract
The mechanical properties of composite structures degrade severely by external impact events. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor structural conditions and to detect damages in real-time. As a part of health-monitoring studies for composite structures, an identification method of impact force is presented in this paper. The relation between force histories and strain responses in composite plates is formulated with Green's function based on the finite element method. Then an identification method of impact force location and histories from strain responses is proposed using strain gauges or PZT as sensors measuring the dynamic response. The validity of the present method is verified through the identification results for CFRP laminated plates.
