Temperature Changes Effect on the Inner Product Vector Method and its Application to Structural Health Monitoring of Aircraft Industry

The purpose of the paper is to study the effect of temperature change on the theory of inner product vector (IPV). The IPV method can be used to detect structural damage. This study evaluates the IPV method ability to detect damage of an Airbus A320 slat-track, which is in the form of a longitudinal crack. The results show that the IPV method is able to detect defects in the structure as well as its location, with close approximation. Then, the Airbus A320 slat-track was investigated for the effect of changes in temperature on the IPV method, evaluated over a temperature between –73 and 260 °C. The effect of temperature on the performance of IPV damage detection method has not been investigated so far. The results of the IPV method show a spurious defect in the structure as the temperature changes; therefore, the IPV method is temperature-sensitive. Also, this study highlighted the importance of applying simulation methods to develop vibration-based damage detection (VBDD) techniques, especially for evaluating the effect of changes in environmental temperature when the structure is complex.