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The Lamb waves in nematic elastomer plates are investigated by adopting the viscoelasticity theory in the hydro-dynamic (low frequency) limit. The Legendre polynomial series approach is employed to obtain the complex wave number solutions to characterize the wave propagation and attenuation. Some unique Lamb wave characteristics are revealed. Results show that the cutoff frequencies of all Lamb modes vanish due to the high viscoelasticity. Except for A0 mode, each mode has a minimal attenuation frequency. Besides, the attenuation of nematic phase is thousands of times greater than the isotropic phase, which would be significant in designing damping applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the propagation of Lamb waves in an orthotropic elastic sandwich plate is investigated. The surface layers and the core layer may be compressible or incompressible. The main aim of the paper is to derive explicit dispersion equations. First, the dispersion equations of symmetric modes and asymmetric modes are derived for compressible sandwich plates by using the effective boundary condition method along with the transfer matrices for orthotropic elastic layers. These dispersion equations recover the dispersion equations of Lamb waves propagating in compressible isotropic sandwich plates. The dispersion equations for incompressible sandwich plates are obtained by using the incompressible limit method. It is shown numerically that the thickness ratio and the stiff contrast affect strongly higher modes and the incompressibility has strong influence on symmetric modes. Remarkably, the obtained dispersion equations can be used to analyze the dispersion characteristic of Lamb waves propagating in sandwich plates with honeycomb core layers because the honeycomb core layers can be replaced effectively by transversely isotropic elastic layers by mean of homogenization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal is the prominent characteristic of Lamb waves, which means a variety of Lamb wave modes propagate in the structure and each of them has unique propagation behaviour. For a wideband multimodal Lamb wave signal, it is possible that many different modes share the same group velocity at some frequency points, while their dispersion behaviours change differently to thickness variation. In this study, the diversity and difference of the interaction between the corrosion and Lamb wave modes are investigated. On this basis, a corrosion index (CI) is established to evaluate the time gap between two modes at their identical group velocity points. The simulation results show that the CI value of a corroded path is obviously larger than that of a healthy path, indicating the presence of the damage, which is independent of any base-line signal. Furthermore, the new reconstruction algorithm for the probabilistic inspection of damage (RAPID) was proposed, where the signal difference coefficient was replaced by the CI to visualise damage location. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed multimodal Lamb wave baseline-free damage detection method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wide application of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) structure, a structural health monitoring (SHM) system that can easily detect damages in CFRP structures is urgently needed. Since it is possible to detect damages effectively in a large area in CFRP by using the scattering of Lamb waves, in this research, we investigated the scattering of Lamb waves at an impact damaged area in quasi-isotropic (QI) CFRP laminate. By modelling the impact damage as a cylinder area with a uniform stiffness degradation, the scattering waves are calculated based on Mindlin plate theory, which is more precise than Kirchhoff plate theory. It is shown that in the low-frequency region, the calculation results based on Kirchhoff and Mindlin plate theory was similar, but in a higher frequency range, the results differed. The calculation results were compared with the simulation results, suggesting the validity of Mindlin plate theory within a practical frequency range. Moreover, we validated the analytical and simulation results experimentally using a QI CFRP laminate with a hole. We also conducted some parameter study based on the analytical calculation to clarify influential stiffness components. Since scattering behaviour of Lamb waves can be calculated in a fast and easy way using this method, this work is useful for the successful development of a scattering-based SHM system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The propagation characteristics of Lamb waves in a functionally graded material (FGM) plate with periodic gratings have been studied. The power series technique is employed to solve the governing differential equations with variable coefficients. In the propagation direction, the displacements of Lamb waves are expanded in the Fourier series due to the periodicity of the structure. The convergences of the power series and Fourier series are proved and the method presented in the article is verified by the finite element method (FEM). The band gaps are obtained by the couplings between the different modes of Lamb waves induced by FGM. The effects of the structural parameters (such as the periodicity, mass, and length of the gratings) and gradient coefficient on band gaps are investigated. Numerical results show that the band gaps shift up as the gradient coefficient increases and the second band gap (SBG) is closed when the gradient coefficient is large enough. The conclusions are of practical significance for designing elastic wave filters with high-performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Lamb mode identification method based on small-sample dictionary algorithm is proposed and applied for the separation of specific Lamb modes, the reconstruction of Lamb waves upon propagating a certain distance and damage identification. This approach includes the creation of small-sample dictionary and querying procession in a dictionary. Firstly, Lamb wave signals upon propagating at a series of distances are simulated, and signal features, {mode, distance, time of flight (Tof), wavelet energy}, are extracted to create a dictionary; secondly, Tof of the received signal is extracted, and then Lamb modes are identified by searching the dictionary; finally, energy parameters are estimated to reconstruct wavepackets. The feasibility of this algorithm is validated in AAA laminate, and the results are presented. In a 2D-simulation model of a pitch-catch configuration, A0 and S0 modes can be identified and reconstructed effectively when the direct waves and the reflected waves are synchronously received, with the propagation distance of 0.3 m and 0.5 m, respectively. In addition, a Lamb-wave-based delamination location is conducted in three-dimensional AAA laminate. The experimental results show that the delamination can be located relatively by combining the identified damage-scattered S0 waves and the probability-based diagnostic imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During production or service life, lightweight components made of fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) may suffer from different types of defects such as cracks or delamination, which may be detected, amongst others, with the help of ultrasonic lamb waves (LW). The study intends to illustrate the potentials of numerical models to assist the design of LW-based non-destructive testing (NDT) processes. For that, the complete NDT chain of an LW driven inspection system was supported by a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using stringer-stiffened C FRP panels as an exemplary component. The study was divided in two publications: The first part focused on the description of the numerical model, illustration of its functionalities and – most importantly – the determination of LW related effects that were needed to design the inspection system (dispersion characteristics, excitation frequency, propagating modes etc.). In this part, the FEA driven design approach was first validated with self measured experimental data as well as experiments provided in literature. In the second step, the numerical model was applied for the performance of parameter studies in order to identify component specific aspects that proved important for the NDT process. Finally, general advices and FEA related working steps were derived from all findings to assist practitioners in the implementation of the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wide band gaps with the propagation of elastic waves at low-frequency are desirable for phononic crystals in many traditional and novel applications. Inspired by the natural helix, we designed a microstructure in a metamaterial plate with an antisymmetric dual helix as the basic local resonant cell. The band structure and displacement transmission curve of metamaterial plates with dual helix cells were calculated by using the finite element method at first, then the band gap characteristics with and without consideration of the mass in the center of the dual helix were compared. The results show that the band gap in the band structure and displacement transmission curves have excellent consistency. Besides, the effects of the parameters including the number of turns of the helix, the plate thickness, and the radius of the attached mass sphere on the band gaps of flexural waves for the metamaterial plate were examined for further evaluation of the potential vibration prohibition application. It is found that the lower frequency of the band gap can be significantly tuned by adding a mass element in the metamaterial plates with dual helix elements, which provides a new method to tune the width of the band gap of a metamaterial plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]