Structural Health Monitoring for Cables with Insulation Layer by Envelope Analysis Based on Ultrasonic Guided Waves

Abstract

Abstract Cables play an important role in industries and their insulation layer may experience aging problems, which can lead to serious consequences such as fire. Therefore, monitoring the condition of the cable insulation layer can effectively avoid accidents. In this paper, a structural health monitoring method for cables with insulation layer is proposed, which is based on ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs). In the method the UGWs are generated by MFC transducers and do not affect the normal operation of the cables. When UGWs propagating in the cable encounter defects, the reflected signals appear and can be acquired by the measurement system. The signal received by MFC transducers is processed to extract the characteristics. According to the envelope of received signals, it can be judged whether the current cable insulation is defective. In the experiment, cables in different conditions are tested and defects are successfully detected.