Composite Armor Structural Monitoring (CASM)

In this project, Impact Technologies is adapting an existing composite material damage assessment technology to composite armor structures. A vibro-acoustic methodology is applied to determine damage location and severity on composite armor using both passive and active approaches. The passive approach relies on external excitation to both wake the system and generate excitations that can be used to detect existing or nascent damage. The active approach utilizes embedded piezoelectric actuators to generate intrinsic excitations. A significant portion of the Phase I effort is a sensor selection study, where among others, macro-fiber composite patches, piezoceramic transducers, and fiber Bragg gratings will be evaluated as potential embeddable sensing hardware. Impact will leverage its experience with advanced modeling tools to analyze the dynamics of ballistics impacts on anisotropic laminate panels, and verify those models with laboratory testing. The models will then be exercised to produce the information necessary to optimally locate sensors and actuators within the material. At the conclusion of the Phase I program a preliminary system concept based on Impact’s proprietary nodal-based sensor/communications network will demonstrate how sensor data is collected, processed, and delivered to both local and remote displays to provide real-time decision support.