Measurement of circumferential Lamb waves using a line-focus poly(vinylidene fluoride) transducer and cross...

This paper presents a method for measuring circumferential Lamb waves propagating on a cylindrically curved thin plate. The measurement is carried out using a wideband and line-focused poly(vinylidene fluoride) transducer along with a defocusing waveform measurement method. After synthesizing the acquired waveforms, interference patterns can be obtained and a cross correlation method is developed to accurately extract the wave velocity as a function of wave frequency. Using three stainless steel thin plates of different thicknesses (100, 150, and 300 μm) and a radius of curvature of 10 mm, dispersion curves for several fundamental and higher order modes of circumferential Lamb waves are simultaneously determined. Theoretical dispersion curves are also calculated and compared with their experimental counterparts. Very good agreements are observed, which concludes the measurement accuracy of this measurement method.