Damage assessment in composite laminates via broadband Lamb wave

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Non-Destructive Testing

Background:

• Time of flight (ToF) methods using Lamb waves are common for damage detection in composites.
• Performance is limited by Lamb wave energy dissipation and significant damage size.
• Existing methods struggle with accurate damage assessment in composite structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an advanced method for precise damage localization and size evaluation in composite structures.
• To overcome limitations of traditional Lamb wave-based damage detection techniques.
• To provide quantitative data for assessing structural integrity.

Main Methods:

• Investigated Lamb wave propagation characteristics in quasi-isotropic composite laminates.
• Designed broadband excitation and employed pulse compression for signal enhancement and accurate distance estimation.
• Utilized gravity center of path loci intersections for damage localization and convex envelope for damage contour estimation.

Main Results:

• Successfully demonstrated damage localization and size estimation capabilities.
• Experimental verification with five different damage sizes confirmed method efficiency.
• The proposed approach provides quantitative damage assessment information.

Conclusions:

• The developed method significantly improves damage detection performance in composite structures.
• Accurate localization and size assessment of damage are achievable.
• This technique offers a valuable tool for quantitative non-destructive evaluation of composites.