An enhanced time-reversal method for impact damage monitoring on plate-like structures

Based on the self-focusing property of time-reversal (T-R) concept, a time focusing parameter was suggested to improve the impact source identification method developed in authors' previous work. This paper presents a further study on monitoring relatively high energy impact events which caused induced damage on structures. Numerical verifications for a finite isotropic plate and a composite plate under low velocity impacts are performed to demonstrate the versatility of T-R method for impact location detection with induced plastic deformation and delamination damage on metallic and composite structures respectively. The focusing property of T-R concept was adequately utilized to detect impact/damage location. The results show that impact events with various features can be localized using T-R method by introducing the time focusing parameter. It is suited to monitor serious impact events on plate like structures in practice in future.