I would like to know that ultrasonic structural health monitoring has been developed for many years. At present, in which fields has it been maturely applied? Which companies have launched corresponding products? Now I have read a lot of relevant papers, but I think this direction is still in the stage of laboratory research, and there are many problems to be solved in practical application. What is the research significance of this direction for the industry?
Your doubts are fully justified. I suggest to read the paper of Peter Cawley on this matter:
Article Structural health monitoring: Closing the gap between resear...
Boeing has installed patch-type pzt sensors to monitor fatigue failure of the aircraft wing structure. It is not for a long range inspection but a short range inspection where sensors are installed in close proximity to the structurally vulnerable spots. "Long range inspection using guided waves blah blah...", these are all lies to publish papers. Watch out!
If the patch-type pzt sensors can not monitor the condition of the structures in a long-range, how do the pzt based vibrating/acoustic methods often seen in publications monitor the structure condition like aircraft wings, dams,s or bridges or something else? Or these methods only have the potential in some scenarios. I wonder if Boeing has realized the long-range monitoring of their aircraft wings with a technique we don't know.
I think that depends on the quantity what you meant with "long-range". Like any high-frequency ultrasonics, the defect detectability of Lamb wave largely depends on its wavelength.
From my previous experience: ~1 cm defect size in ~1 m² with 1 Lamb-mode sensor-actuator pair in a "clean plate" (homogenous, non-laminate, only rivets, no joints or T-shaped angle) in lab setting is OK.
The problem is, you are very unlikely to find out such clean plate in any real-world settings. In addition, the acceptable defect by manufacturers is way much smaller than that.
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