Paper
16 April 2013 Stiffness matrix determination of composite materials using lamb wave group velocity measurements
O. Putkis, A. J. Croxford
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The use of Lamb waves in Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is gaining popularity due to their ability to travel long distances without significant attenuation, therefore offering large area inspections with a small number of sensors. The design of a Lamb-wave-based NDE/SHM system for composite materials is more complicated than for metallic materials due to the directional dependence of Lamb wave propagation characteristics such as dispersion and group velocity. Propagation parameters can be theoretically predicted from known material properties, specifically the stiffness matrix and density. However, in practice it is difficult to obtain the stiffness matrix of a particular material or structure with high accuracy, hence introducing errors in theoretical predictions and inaccuracies in the resulting propagation parameters. Measured Lamb wave phase velocities can be used to infer the stiffness matrix, but the measurements are limited to the principal directions due to the steering effect (different propagation directions of phase and corresponding group velocities). This paper proposes determination of the stiffness matrix from the measured group velocities, which can be unambiguously measured in any direction. A highly anisotropic carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer plate is chosen for the study. The influence of different stiffness matrix elements on the directional group velocity profile is investigated. Thermodynamic Simulated Annealing (TSA) is used as a tool for inverse, multi variable inference of the stiffness matrix. A good estimation is achieved for particular matrix elements.
© (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
O. Putkis and A. J. Croxford "Stiffness matrix determination of composite materials using lamb wave group velocity measurements", Proc. SPIE 8694, Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2013, 869403 (16 April 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2009436
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Cited by 3 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Composites

Velocity measurements

Wave propagation

Algorithms

Chemical elements

Phase velocity

Nondestructive evaluation

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