• 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 Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2008

The dispersion and attenuation of Lamb and Leaky Lamb waves propagating in a 1 mm-thick steel plate were investigated. For acquiring a long(or large) range inspection capability, the fundamental symmetric and anti-symmetric wave modes(S0 and A0) over law frequencies were studied. Based on the dispersion curves, as well as pitch-catch and multi-mode simulations, it was shown that the S0 mode over law frequencies is the proper mode to minimize the dispersion and attenuation. In addition, it was shown that the S0 mode couldbe easily distinguished under multi-mode simulation since it has a larger group velocity than the A0 mode.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2011

The ultrasonic guided wave phased array using magnetostrictive patch transducers is proposed. The magnetostrictive transducer has received much attention because it is cost-effective and capable to generate ultrasonic waves with a simple configuration. However, it has not been used for ultrasonic guided wave phased array applications until now. In this paper, we propose a magnetostrictive transducer based phased array system consisting of a multi-channel function generator, power amplifiers and Lamb wave magnetostrictive transducers. To check the performance of the ultrasonic guided wave phased array, several Lamb wave focusing experiments were carried out in an aluminum plate. The results demonstrated the capability of the developed array to focus the Lamb waves at specific target points.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.331-342
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• 2005

This paper presents a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique for detecting damages on a jointed steel plate on the basis of the time of flight and wavelet coefficient, obtained from wavelet transforms of Lamb wave signals. Support vector machines (SVMs), which is a tool for pattern classification problems, was applied to the damage estimation. Two kinds of damages were artificially introduced by loosening bolts located in the path of the Lamb waves and those out of the path. The damage cases were used for the establishment of the optimal decision boundaries which divide each damage class's region from the intact class. In this study, the applicability of the SVMs was investigated for the damages in and out of the Lamb wave path. It has been found that the present methods are very efficient in detecting the damages simulated by loose bolts on the jointed steel plate.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.175-180
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• 2016

Nondestructive evaluation for material health monitoring is important in aerospace industries. Composite laminates are exposed to heat cyclic loading and humid environment depending on flight conditions. Cyclic heat loading and moisture absorption may lead to material degradation such as matrix breaking, debonding, and delamination. In this paper, the moisture absorption ratio was investigated by measuring the Lamb wave velocity. The composite laminates were manufactured and subjected to different thermal aging cycles and moisture absorption. For various conditions of these cycles, not only changes in weight and also ultrasonic wave velocity were measured, and the Lamb wave velocity at various levels of moisture on a carbon-epoxy plate was investigated. Results from the experiment show a linear correlation between moisture absorption ratio and Lamb wave velocity at different thermal fatigue stages. The presented method can be applied as an alternative solution in the online monitoring of composite laminate moisture levels in commercial flights.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.89-103
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• 2009

This study investigates the applicability of the time reversal concept in modem acoustics to the Lamb waves, which have been widely studied for defect detection in plate-like structures. According to conventional time reversal acoustics, an input signal can be reconstructed at an excitation point if an output signal recorded at another point is reversed in the time domain and emitted back to the original source point. However, the application of a time reversal process(TRP) to Lamb wave propagations is complicated due to velocity and amplitude dispersion characteristics of Lamb waves and reflections from the boundaries of a structure. In this study, theoretical investigations are presented to better understand the time reversibility of Lamb waves. In particular, the effects of within-mode dispersion, multimode dispersion, amplitude dispersion, and reflections from boundaries on the TRP are theoretically formulated. Simple numerical case studies are conducted to validate the theoretical findings of this study.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.129-139
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• 2008

The purpose of the present work is to derive the reflection and transmission coefficients of $S_0\;and\;A_0$ mode Lamb waves in relation to the geometry of a rectangular notch when the waves propagate across the notch in an elastic plate. Firstly, the excitable modes of the Lamb wave were analyzed with respect to the plate thickness. The scattering phenomena were divided into three independent processes according to the boundary shape of the notch and the direction of the wave propagation. Linear equations for each process were derived with corresponding free or continuous boundary conditions to analyze the scattered waves. By the rule of linear superposition, the waves scattered at each process were summed for each mode. Then the steady-state reflection and transmission coefficients of the scattered waves were determined so that the difference of energy flux between the incident and the scattered waves would remain within 4%.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.29-34
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• 2006

This study experimentally investigates the characteristics of Lamb wave propagating in a composite plate of varied thickness. In practical aerospace structures, there are so many parts that have varied thickness. Therefore, in order to employ the Lamb wave in a structural health monitoring of those parts, it is necessary to understand correctly the characteristics of Lamb wave for the structure with thickness variation. Thin surface-bonded piezoelectric transducers, which have great potential in integrated monitoring systems for structural health, were used to generate and receive Lamb waves. The predicted propagation velocity under the assumptions of ideal mode conversions was compared with the experimentally measured one. The validity of the results was supported by the frequency analysis of the signals. Consequently, the results show that the transient region is occurred when Lamb waves propagate across the region that thickness variation over some gradient exists.