Effect of strain measurement layout on damage detection and localization in a free falling compliant cylinder impacting a water surface

The need for effective and reliable damage detection and localization systems is growing in several engineering fields, in particular in water impact problems characterized by impulsive loading conditions, high amplitude vibrations and large local deformations. In this paper, we further develop the approach presented in previous works to detect damage of water-impacting structures. Specifically, we provide a set of experimental tests on a flexible plastic cylinder impacting the water after a 50 cm free fall. The cylindrical specimen is artificially damaged in a known position. Strain measurements are performed through a set of nine fiber Bragg gratings distributed along the circumference of a cylinder section. We show that strain sensors can be used as reference sensors, for structure displacements reconstruction, and control sensors, for damage detection purposes, and the computation of the difference between measured and expected deformation may allow damage detection. Moreover, we investigate how exchanging control and reference sensors in the same sensor arrangement affect damage detection and localization.