• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 2006

Structural health monitoring results obtained with the electro-mechanical (E/M) impedance techniqueand Lamb wave transmission methods during fatigue crack propagation of an Arcan specimen instrumented with piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are presented. The specimen was subjected in mixed-mode fatigue loading and a crack was propagated in stages. At each stage, an image of the crack and the location of the crack tip were recorded and the PWAS readings were taken. Hence, the crack-growth in the specimen could be correlated with the PWAS readings. The E/M impedance signature was recorded in the 100 - 500 kHz frequency range. The Lamb-wave transmission method used the pitch-catch approach with a 3-count sine tone burst of 474 kHz transmitted and received between various PWAS pairs. Fatigue loading was applied to initiate and propagate the crack damage of controlled magnitude. As damage progressed, the E/M impedance signatures and the waveforms received by receivers were recorded at predetermined intervals and compared. Data analysis indicated that both the E/M impedance signatures and the Lamb-wave transmission signatures are modified by the crack progression. Damage index values were observed to increase as the crack damage increases. These experiments demonstrated that the use of PWAS in conjunction with the E/M impedance and the Lamb-wave transmission is a potentially powerful tool for crack damage detection and monitoring in structural elements.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.107-112
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• 2006

The elastic waves in a plate are dispersive waves due to the characteristics of Lamb waves. However, S0 symmetric mode is less dispersive in the frequency region below the first cut-off frequency. The wave Propagation velocities vary with the direction in anisotropic plates such as Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) Plates. The wave vector direction and energy flow vector direction are same in isotropic plates. However, the wave vector direction same as the phase velocity direction is not in accordance with the energy flow direction same as the group velocity direction in anisotropic plates. In this study. the dispersion curves or the phase velocity from anti-symmetric and symmetric Lamb wave dispersion equation are calculated for unidirectional laminated composite plate. Slowness surface is sketched using phase velocity under the first cut-off frequency. The direction and magnitude of group velocity are corrected with this slowness surface. The measured group velocities are in good agreement with the corrected group velocity curve except near the fiber direction zone which is called the cusp region.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.262-267
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• 2007

Detection of gas leak from a tube is a very important issue in the quality control of machines such as the heat exchanger of an air-conditioner, because leakage of operating gas directly reduces the performance of machines. The acoustic emission (AE) method is a common way to detect leak of gas, however its application under the environment of mechanical vibration is restricted since most AE detectors are very sensitive to external vibration noise. In order to overcome this problem, we propose a method based on the mode analysis of the Lamb wave. In this method, the dominant Lamb mode and its frequency are found first, and then a proper band-pass filter is used to retain only this frequency component. In this way, we could improve the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of AE signal generated by gas leak from the tube even under vibratory environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.04a
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• pp.722-725
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• 2014

The spatial focusing of time reversal Lamb waves on a plate has attracted considerable attention for identifying the location of an input source. This study investigates the spatial focusing performance on a plate with respect to the number of piezoelectric (PZT) sensors for varying locations of input sources. In particular, a small number of PZT sensors produce spatial focusing through the virtual sensor effect due to reflection of Lamb waves at plate edges. The spatial focusing performance with respect to the number of PZT sensors is quantified in terms of signal to noise ratio through numerical simulation and its implication is discussed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.795-817
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• 2016

A non-contact, in-situ and non-invasive technique for health monitoring of submerged fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) laminates has been developed using ultrasonic guided waves. A pair of mobile transducers at specific angles of incidence to the submerged FRP specimen was used to excite Lamb wave modes. Lamb wave modes were used for comprehensive inspection of various types of manufacturing defects like air gaps and missing epoxy, introduced during manufacturing of FRP using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Molding (VARIM). Further service induced damages like notches and surface defects were also studied and evaluated using guided waves. Quantitative evaluation of transmitted ultrasonic signal in defect ridden FRPs $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ healthy signal has been used to relate the extent of damage in FRPs. The developed technique has the potential to develop into a quick, real time health monitoring tool for judging the service worthiness of FRPs.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.291-304
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• 2008

Piezoelectric materials have been widely used in ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT). PZT ceramics can be used to receive and generate surface acoustic waves. It is a common application to attach PZT transducers to the surface of structures for detecting cracks in nondestructive testing. However, not until recently have piezoelectric polymers attracted more and more attention to be the material for interdigitated (IDT) surface and guided-wave transducers. In this paper, an interdigitated gold-on-polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) transducer for actuating and sensing Lamb waves has been introduced. A specific etching technology is employed for making the surface electrodes into a certain finger pattern, the spacings of which yield different single mode responses of Lamb waves. Experiments have been performed on steel and carbon fiber composite plates. Results from PVDF IDT sensors have been compared with those from PZT transducers for verification.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.199-204
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• 2008

The generation of axisymmetric Lamb waves and interaction with wall thinning (corrosion) defects in hollow cylinders are simulated using the finite element method. Guided wave interaction with defects in cylinders is challenged by the multi-mode dispersion and the mode conversion. In this paper, two longitudinal, axisymmetric modes are generated using the concept of a time-delay periodic ring arrays (TDPRA), which makes use of the constructive/destructive interference concept to achieve the unidirectional emission and reception of guided waves. The axisymmetric scattering by the wall thinning extending in full circumference of a cylinder is studied with a two-dimensional FE simulation. The effect of wall thinning depth, axial extension, and the edge shape on the reflections of guided waves is discussed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.185-197
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• 2013

We developed a simultaneous strain measurement and damage detection technique using a pair of surface-mounted piezoelectric transducers and a fiber connecting them. This is a novel sensor configuration of the fiber acoustic wave (FAW) piezoelectric transducer. In this study, lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) transducers are installed conventionally on a plate's surface, which is a technique used in many structural health monitoring studies. However, our PZTs are also connected with an optical fiber. A FAW and Lamb wave are simultaneously guided in the optical fiber and the structure, respectively. The dependency of the time-of-flight of the FAW on the applied strain is quantified for strain sensing. In our experimental results, the FAW exhibited excellent linear behavior and no hysteresis with respect to the change in strain. On the other hand, the well-known damage detection function of the surface-mounted PZT transducers was still available by monitoring the waveform change in the conventional Lamb wave ultrasonic path.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.381-396
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• 2017

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a necessity for reliable and efficient functioning of engineering systems. Damage detection (DD) is a crucial component of any SHM system. Lamb waves are a popular means to DD owing to their sensitivity to small damages over a substantial length. This typically involves an active sensing paradigm in a pitch-catch setting, that involves two piezo-sensors, a transmitter and a receiver. In this paper, we propose a data-intensive DD approach for beam structures using high frequency signals acquired from beams in a pitch-catch setting. The key idea is to develop a statistical learning-based approach, that harnesses the inherent sparsity in the problem. The proposed approach performs damage detection, localization in beams. In addition, quantification is possible too with prior calibration. We demonstrate numerically that the proposed approach achieves 100% accuracy in detection and localization even with a signal to noise ratio of 25 dB.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.3 s.258
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• pp.300-305
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• 2007

Many practical flow problems are defined with the circular boundary. Fluid flows within a circular boundary are however susceptible to a singularity problem when the cylindrical coordinates are employed. To remove this singularity a method has been developed in this study which uses the local harmonic functions in discretization of derivatives as well as interpolation. This paper describes the basic reason for introducing the harmonic functions and the overall numerical methods. The numerical methods are evaluated in terms of the accuracy and the stability. The Lamb-dipole flow is selected as a test flow. We will see that the harmonic-function method indeed gives more accurate solutions than the conventional methods in which the polynomial functions are utilized.