Plate structures are widely used in large-scale engineering fields such as aerospace, hull manufacturing, and construction. However, the plate structure is easily damaged during long-term service or when it is impacted by foreign objects. Such a damage may lead to serious safety accidents.

Beamforming and L-shaped sensor cluster (LSSC) localization method can be used to locate the damage on the plate. However, when using beamforming method or LSSC localization method to locate the damages on plate-like structures, there exists blind area.

In this paper, by combining the beamforming method and LSSC localization method, a fan-shaped sensor cluster localization method is proposed through arranging five sensors in a fan shape, which can effectively reduce the blind areas. The positions of damages in the plate can be accurately detected by using two groups of fan-shaped sensor clusters and one sensor for transmitting the excitation signal. The feasibility of the fan-shaped sensor cluster localization method is verified through numerical simulations and experiments, and the results are compared with those obtained by using the T-shaped sensor cluster. The results show that the fan-shaped sensor cluster localization method can more accurately identify the damages at different positions. Both simulation and experimental results indicate that the fan-shaped sensor cluster localization method can reduce the blind area and improve the accuracy of damage location.