Colloquium: Romy Harink (ASM)

To facilitate the transition to liquid hydrogen as an alternative aircraft fuel, the storage tanks need to be closely monitored to guarantee for safe operation (due to e.g. cryogenic and hydrogen embrittlement). This thesis explores the feasibility of using an acoustic emission-based structural health monitoring method to detect and localise simulated damage on a metal double-walled vacuum insulated tank. It is investigated whether this is possible solely with outside-the-tank sensor placement. To be able to perform experiments, a metal double-walled vacuum insulated tank with a fixed and flexible support was cut in half to make the inner tank accessible. Pencil lead break tests were performed on the inner and outer tank and recorded by PZT sensors to asses localisation accuracy.

Supervisor: Nan Yue