Multiscale 1-DCNN for Damage Localization and Quantification Using Guided Waves With Novel Data Fusion Technique and New Self-Attention Module

This article proposes an innovative damage localization and size quantification method named as MSCNNSAM based on new multiscale convolutional neural network (MSCNN) and novel small-weighted zero-setting self-attentive module (SAM) in carbon fiber reinforced plastic structures. Firstly, an improved piecewise aggregate approximation algorithm (IPAA) is developed to compress the guided wave signal and extract a series of damage indexes (DI). Considering the different effects of the damage location on the different sensing paths, a new method of damage information targeting enhancement and multipath data fusion is proposed. Then, a novel MSCNN architecture is also proposed for the inherent multiscale characteristics of the guided wave signal, which takes the multipath fused data as input and uses regression and classification methods to directly predict the location and size of the damage. Finally, to further improve the performance of the MSCNN, a SAM is proposed to effectively avoid the influence of low-information channel features and improve the damage feature extraction capability of the network. The proposed method is evaluated through experiments on a guided wave testing platform. Experimental results and comprehensive comparison analysis with respect to the state-of-the-art damage localization and quantification methods have demonstrated the superiority of the proposed MSCNNSAM.