Distributed modal sensors for rectangular plate structures

Modal sensors are sensitive to the structure’s response at one or more modes and insensitive to the response due to other modes. Design techniques are well established for distributed sensors for beam structures, but plate structures are more difficult unless the sensor thickness or effectiveness is altered. This paper considers the design of distributed modal sensors for plate structures. The sensors are assumed to be constant thickness and the modes of the plate are assumed to be known functions. The boundary is assumed to be smooth and parameterized using a finite number of points and spline interpolation. The approach is demonstrated on a simply supported uniform rectangular plate and the modes are obtained from the analytical solution. The effect of the number of modes of interest, the form of the objective function and the number of boundary points is highlighted.