Advances in Acoustics and Vibration
Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 429749, 10 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/429749
A Noncontact Method for the Detection and Diagnosis of Surface Damage in Immersed Structures
1GREAH, Normandie Université, 75 rue Bellot, 76058 Le Havre, France
2LOMC, UMR CNRS 6294, Normandie Université, 75 rue Bellot, 76058 Le Havre, France
Received 14 October 2014; Accepted 16 April 2015
Academic Editor: Emil Manoach
Copyright © 2015 Y. Sidibe et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Detection and diagnosis method is proposed for surface damage in immersed structures. It is based on noncontact ultrasonic echography measurements, signal processing tools, and artificial intelligence methods. Significant features are extracted from the measured signals and a classification method is developed to detect the echoes resulting from surface damage in an immersed structure. The identification of the damage is also provided. Gaussian neural networks trained with a specific learning algorithm are developed for this purpose. The performance of the method is validated by laboratory experiments which indicate that this method could be suitable for the monitoring of inaccessible systems like marine turbines whose unavailability causes severe economic losses.