Nikhil Thomas Master's Thesis Defense

Our team member Nikhil Thomas defended his master's thesis titled: Acoustic Beamforming for Damage Detection in Plate-like Structures. 

Acoustic beamforming was previously limited to detecting sound leaking from sealed enclosures, and Nikhil's work showed, for the first time, that low-frequency acoustic waves (1000 Hz - 5000 Hz) can be used to detect damage in flat structures such as plates.  Nikhil identified the minimum detectable defect size under different excitation conditions. His work paves the way for using low-frequency sound to monitor structural health in complex scenarios.