KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Structural health monitoring, Metamaterials, Ultrasonics, Wave propagation, Nondestructive evaluation, Active remote sensing, Control systems
Ultrasonic guided waves have been investigated as a class of powerful tool for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE). The key towards a highly sensitive structural sensing system resides in whether it can take full advantage of the favorable features of the interrogative wavefield. This paper reports recent research progress in SHM and wave mechanics from Active Materials and Intelligent Structures (AMIS) Lab at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It addresses two major aspects in this regard: (1) effective and efficient methodology of exploring guided wave characteristics for damage detection and quantification; (2) recent progress on manipulating guided waves for enhanced SHM/NDE performance. In particular, the first aspect presents efficient modeling strategies for understanding linear and nonlinear guided wave signatures, including semi-analytical finite element method, local interaction simulation approach, and small-size regional numerical models. Examples of fatigue crack evaluation will be demonstrated with the extracted guided wave information in both linear and nonlinear regions. The second aspect puts forward the concept of engaging elastic metamaterials for inspection wave field control. It will demonstrate four different wave manipulation case studies: frequency component filtering, selective wave mode transmission, complete mode conversion, as well as tunable wave control with active elastic metamaterials. The paper finishes with summary, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents the numerical study of the piezoelectric composite transducers for active sensing of concrete structures. A three-dimensional coupled field finite element model is initially constructed to capture the electro-mechanical impedance features of the piezoelectric composite transducers. The elaborated transducer takes the shape of a cube filled with the piezoelectric material. The spatially interdigitated electrodes are integrated to evenly separate the entire piezoelectric medium, forming the stacked piezoelectric units with opposite poling directions. Subsequently, the proposed transducers are embedded in a concrete beam, serving as the transmitter and the receiver, respectively. The electro mechanical impedance approach enabled by the proposed piezoelectric composite sensor is numerically conducted for crack detection. In addition, a pitch-catch active sensing procedure in concrete structures is realized via the transient analysis, modeling ultrasonic wave generation by the transmitter, propagation inside the concrete beam, interaction with the crack, and reception by the receiver. The developed piezoelectric composite transducer possesses tremendous potential for health monitoring of concrete structures. The paper finishes with discussion, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
Liquid-constituted metamaterials are burgeoning due to their adaptive features compared with their solid counterparts. The steerable characteristics would intensively benefit the active metamaterial designs for controlling elastic guided waves. In this paper, a magnetic fluid-solid interactive metamaterial is elaborately designed to achieve the stopband switching for the manipulation of ultrasonic waves. It is revealed that fluid-structure interaction phenomenon plays the indispensable role for the bandgap formation and translation scenario. The tunable mechanism stems from the variation of the interplay circumstance arising from liquid redistribution during the magnetic field variation procedure. The stop-passing-band-opening effectiveness of the proposed metamaterial would be explicitly validated through both analytical predication and numerical simulations. Such an active design may possess enabling application potential for future highly flexible wave control, e.g., selective-tunnel waveguiding and adaptive mechanical frequency filtering.
This paper presents a Nonlinear Electro-Mechanical Impedance Spectroscopy (NEMIS) methodology for fatigue crack monitoring. Different from the conventional Electro-Mechanical Impedance Spectroscopy (EMIS) implemented in frequency domain, the current work employs a temporal chirp-based interrogative excitation to obtain the impedance spectrum, and simultaneously captures the Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity (CAN) arising from fatigue crack interfaces. To develop an insight into the mechanism behind the chirp-based impedance method, a comparative investigation between the conventional EMIS and the chirp-based NEMIS algorithm is conducted. Numerical studies are carried out on a transitional-bilinear CAN model to illustrate the chirp-induced higher harmonics and nonlinear mixed-frequency response features. Furthermore, finite element simulations are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the chirp-based NEMIS. Finally, experimental validation of the NEMIS method is performed. The chirp-based impedance spectra are verified against results from the impedance analyzer. Fatigue cracks are nucleated and grown on the MTS testing machine with cyclic loadings. Higher harmonics and wave modulation features can be successfully captured to manifest the existence of the fatigue crack. Quantification on the severity of the crack is conducted using the nonlinear damage index. The paper finishes with summary, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents a tunable ultrasonic lens for the flexible control and modulation of Lamb waves. The lens is comprised of layered slice structures using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) which could change its material properties under thermal loads. Numerical investigations on the wave dispersion characteristics demonstrate the tuning capability of wave speeds in the slice waveguide. Harmonic and transient dynamic modeling results further present the wave steering and focusing phenomena to a desired direction and focal point, covering a scanning area. Such a capability possesses great application potential to enhance the performance of Lamb wave based SHM and NDE systems.
In this study, an omnidirectional shear horizontal (SH) wave acoustic transducer (OSH-WAT) is proposed, composed of a circular aluminum structure driven by twelve thickness-mode (d33) piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS). The OSH-WAT contains six units to form an axisymmetric structure, and each unit consists of a cylinder with a cantilever beam and two cubic stubs. Two d33 PWASs acting like a couple, as the actuation sources, are bonded on the opposite sides of the cantilever beam to drive the excitation. The thickness-mode PWASs can produce a forcing pair, which can be converted to a circumferential shear deformation by two adjacent cubic stubs, contributing to the omnidirectional SH0 wave generation. Multiphysics finite element model (FEM) is constructed based on such a design. Harmonic analysis is conducted to obtain the spectral response of a circular aluminum plate to investigate the omni-directivity of the SH0 wave excited by the OSH-WAT, so as to identify the “sweet” frequency bands. Thereafter, the coupled field transient dynamic FEM simulations are carried out to acquire the dynamic response of a pitch-catch active sensing procedure. A voltage signal in the form of a 5-count tone burst is applied on each d33-type PWAS to generate SH0 mode waves into the aluminum host plate. The received signals demonstrate the outstanding performance of the successful generation and reception of SH0 waves. The proposed OSH-WAT may possess great potential in future Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) applications. The paper finishes with summary, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents a graphical user interface (GUI) for modeling ultrasonic guided wave propagation in elastic solids. The software exploits the semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) method for the calculation of wave-propagation characteristics. The interface allows for the modeling of piezoelectric effects in plate-like and arbitrary cross-sectional waveguides. The isotropic and anisotropic materials with damping effects are also considered. For anisotropic composite material cases, directivity plots can be extracted, containing the phase-velocities, group velocities, and slowness curves. The frequency-dependent mode shapes can also be obtained, including displacement, strain, stress, and other electric components for piezoelectric materials. The corresponding mode shapes for arbitrary cross-sectional waveguides are presented in the form of vivid animations, demonstrating the cross-sectional harmonic motions. All the computational outcomes are compared with commercial finite element (FE) codes via the Bloch-Floquet boundary conditions. The paper finishes with discussion, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
Composites are widely used in advanced mechanical and aerospace structures due to their outstanding material properties. As a major safety concern for composite structures, impact damage may cause severe mechanical property loss and load-bearing capacity decrease. Impact-induced delamination sites are usually hard to be detected. Thus, it is vital to develop a sensitive impact damage imaging and quantification methodology to facilitate the prompt repairmen and replacement of critical structural parts. This study presents a new nonlinear-ultrasonic-based damage detection technique called the phase mirroring technique. Such a technique utilizes the principles of vibro-acoustic modulation (VAM) and breakage of superposition. The paper starts with a 1D numerical model of the Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity (CAN) based on the Central Difference Method (CDF) to develop a solid understanding of the mechanism behind the ultrasonic nonlinearity. Thereafter, both harmonic and transient analyses are conducted on a 2D coupled-field finite element model with a simulated delamination area to explore the resonance spectrum of the specimen, providing the guidelines for the frequency choice of the pumping wave. Such selected pumping wave can fully vibrate the specimen and engage the nonlinearity to the maximum extend. Subsequently, the flow of the damage detection technique is presented using a 3D coupled-field transient dynamic finite element model. The impact damage is modeled taking a cone shape to better approximate a practical damage, in which the delamination area and stiffness loss vary with layers. This paper finishes with discussion, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
In this paper, an elastic metamaterial is presented to achieve complete conversion from Lamb modes into the fundamental shear horizontal mode. Modal analysis with Bloch-Floquet boundary condition is performed to obtain the dispersion features of the metamaterial system. By analyzing the resonant modes of the unit cell, a complete SH0 mode generation band within the A0 and S0 modes bandgap can be formed in a wide frequency range. Thereafter, finite element model (FEM) harmonic analyses for an elastic metamaterial plate are carried out to explore the mode conversion efficiency. Finally, a coupled field transient dynamic FEM is constructed to acquire the response of the structure. A 30- count tone burst incident wave containing both A0 and S0 modes is excited to propagate into the elastic metamaterial system. The frequency-wavenumber analysis results demonstrate the achievement of the mode conversion behavior, manifested by the strong coupling between guided waves and resonant modes of the composite stubs. The proposed mode conversion behavior may possess great potential in future Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) applications. The paper finishes with summary, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
In this paper, a bandgap meta-surface is carefully designed for enhancing the identifiability of nonlinear ultrasonic superharmonics for fatigue crack detection. In the unit cell design stage, modal analysis with Bloch-Floquet boundary condition is performed to obtain the dispersion features of guided waves in the meta-surface. Then, a finite element model (FEM) for a chain of unit cells is simulated to verify the bandgap effect. In practice, due to the inherent nonlinearity from the electronic instrument and bonding adhesive, the corresponding weak superharmonic components will adversely affect the identifiability of the nonlinear characteristics raised by wave crack interactions. In the current approach, the guided waves generated by the transmitter propagate into the structure, carrying the inherent nonlinearity with them. Immediately afterwards, they pass through the meta-surface with optimized transmission of the fundamental excitation frequency and complete mechanical filtration of the second harmonic component. In this way, the appearance and amplitude of the second harmonic in the sensing signal become evidently indicative of the presence and severity of the fatigue crack along the wave path between the meta-surface and the receiver. The proposed method possesses great potential in future SHM and NDE applications. Nonlinear ultrasonic experiments with the designed meta-surface are conducted to verify the theoretical and numerical investigations as well as to demonstrate the practical application of metamaterial in SHM and NDE. The paper finishes with summary, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents a Lamb wave virtual time reversal algorithm with transducer transfer function compensation to eliminate the transducer influence for dispersive, multimodal Lamb waves. This virtual time reversal procedure builds upon a complete 2D analytical model for Lamb wave generation, propagation, and reception. The analytical solution shows that, with the transducer transfer function compensation, a perfect reconstruction of the original excitation waveform can be achieved for both symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb wave modes. In addition, the Finite Element Modeling (FEM) and experimental validations are further performed to verify the compensated virtual time reversal procedure. Finally, a time reversal tomography experiment is conducted with a piezoelectric transducer array for structural damage imaging. The Lamb wave virtual time reversal algorithm with transducer transfer function compensation can achieve more accurate and robust damage imaging results. The paper finishes with discussion, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents the Scanning Laser Vibrometry (SLV) imaging of fatigue cracks by taking advantage of the nonlinear ultrasonic guided wave scattering and mode conversion phenomena. The investigation starts with the numerical modeling using the Local Interaction Simulation Approach (LISA) to demonstrate the distinctive scattering and mode conversion features at rough fatigue cracks. During the wave crack interactions, nonlinear higher harmonics are generated from Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity (CAN). In addition, the microscale rough crack surface condition may introduce mode conversion between the symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb modes. After the theoretical analysis, SLV experiments are conducted on an aluminum plate, where fatigue cracks are nucleated from a rivet hole. The damage imaging scheme utilizes the post-processing techniques via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), frequency domain filtering, and Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) to eliminate the linear wave field, leaving only the scattered higher harmonics in the images. In this way, the fatigue cracks can be distinguished from structural features such as rivet holes and stiffeners. This paper finishes with summary, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents the investigation of nonlinear scattering features of guided waves from fatigue cracks. The fatigue cracks nucleated from a rivet hole are studied as the representative case. A small-size numerical model based on the Local Interaction Simulation Approach (LISA) is introduced, which enables the efficient analysis of the Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity (CAN) of guided waves. Fatigue tests on a thin aluminum plate with a rivet hole is conducted to induce cracks in the specimen. An active sensor array surrounding the crack zone is implemented to generate and receive ultrasonic guided waves in various directions. Several distinctive aspects of the nonlinear scattering phenomenon are discussed: (1) the directivity and mode conversion features, which addresses the scattering direction dependence of fundamental and superharmonic wave mode components; (2) the amplitude effect, which stems from the rough crack surface condition with initial openings and closures; (3) the nonlinear resonance phenomenon, which maximizes the nonlinear response during the wave crack interactions at certain excitation frequency ranges. All these features may provide insights and guidelines for nonlinear guided wave based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system design. The numerical studies are compared with experimental data. The paper finishes with discussion, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Composites, Ultrasonics, Structural health monitoring, Acoustics, Structural sensing, Systems modeling, Wave propagation, Interfaces, Finite element methods, 3D modeling
This paper presents a numerical investigation of the nonlinear interactions between multimodal guided waves and delamination in composite structures. The elastodynamic wave equations for anisotropic composite laminate were formulated using an explicit Local Interaction Simulation Approach (LISA). The contact dynamics was modeled using the penalty method. In order to capture the stick-slip contact motion, a Coulomb friction law was integrated into the computation procedure. A random gap function was defined for the contact pairs to model distributed initial closures or openings to approximate the nature of rough delamination interfaces. The LISA procedure was coded using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), which enables the highly parallelized computation on powerful graphic cards. Several guided wave modes centered at various frequencies were investigated as the incident wave. Numerical case studies of different delamination locations across the thickness were carried out. The capability of different wave modes at various frequencies to trigger the Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity (CAN) was studied. The correlation between the delamination size and the signal nonlinearity was also investigated. Furthermore, the influence from the roughness of the delamination interfaces was discussed as well. The numerical investigation shows that the nonlinear features of wave delamination interactions can enhance the evaluation capability of guided wave Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system. This paper finishes with discussion, concluding remarks, and suggestions for future work.
This paper presents a parallelized modeling technique for the efficient simulation of nonlinear ultrasonics introduced by the wave interaction with fatigue cracks. The elastodynamic wave equations with contact effects are formulated using an explicit Local Interaction Simulation Approach (LISA). The LISA formulation is extended to capture the contact-impact phenomena during the wave damage interaction based on the penalty method. A Coulomb friction model is integrated into the computation procedure to capture the stick-slip contact shear motion. The LISA procedure is coded using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), which enables the highly parallelized supercomputing on powerful graphic cards. Both the explicit contact formulation and the parallel feature facilitates LISA’s superb computational efficiency over the conventional finite element method (FEM). The theoretical formulations based on the penalty method is introduced and a guideline for the proper choice of the contact stiffness is given. The convergence behavior of the solution under various contact stiffness values is examined. A numerical benchmark problem is used to investigate the new LISA formulation and results are compared with a conventional contact finite element solution. Various nonlinear ultrasonic phenomena are successfully captured using this contact LISA formulation, including the generation of nonlinear higher harmonic responses. Nonlinear mode conversion of guided waves at fatigue cracks is also studied.
Ultrasonic inspection of multiple-rivet-hole lap joint cracks has been introduced using combined analytical and finite element approach (CAFA). Finite element analyses have been performed on local damage area in spite of the whole large structure and transfer function based analytical model is used to analyze the full structure. “Scattered cube” of complex valued wave damage interaction coefficient (WDIC) that involves scattering and mode conversion of Lamb waves around the damage is used as coupling between analytical and FEM simulation. WDIC is captured for multiple angles of incident Lamb mode (S0 and A0) over the frequency domain to analyze the cracks of multiple-rivet-hole lap joint. By analyzing the scattered cube of WDICs over the frequency domain and azimuthal angles the optimum parameters can be determined for each angle of incidence and the most sensitive signals are obtained using WaveformRevealer2D (WFR2D). These sensitive signals confirm the detection of the butterfly cracks in rivet holes through the installment of the transmitting and sensing PWASs in the proper locations and selecting the right frequency of excitation.
This paper presents a hybrid modeling technique for the efficient simulation of guided wave propagation and interaction with damage in composite structures. This hybrid approach uses a local finite element model (FEM) to compute the excitability of guided waves generated by piezoelectric transducers, while the global domain wave propagation, wave-damage interaction, and boundary reflections are modeled with the local interaction simulation approach (LISA).
A small-size multi-physics FEM with non-reflective boundaries (NRB) was built to obtain the excitability information of guided waves generated by the transmitter. Frequency-domain harmonic analysis was carried out to obtain the solution for all the frequencies of interest. Fourier and inverse Fourier transform and frequency domain convolution techniques are used to obtain the time domain 3-D displacement field underneath the transmitter under an arbitrary excitation. This 3-D displacement field is then fed into the highly efficient time domain LISA simulation module to compute guided wave propagation, interaction with damage, and reflections at structural boundaries. The damping effect of composite materials was considered in the modified LISA formulation. The grids for complex structures were generated using commercial FEM preprocessors and converted to LISA connectivity format. Parallelization of the global LISA solution was achieved through Compute Unified Design Architecture (CUDA) running on Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). The multi-physics local FEM can reliably capture the detailed dimensions and local dynamics of the piezoelectric transducers. The global domain LISA can accurately solve the 3-D elastodynamic wave equations in a highly efficient manner. By combining the local FEM with global LISA, the efficient and accurate simulation of guided wave structural health monitoring procedure is achieved. Two numerical case studies are presented: (1) wave propagation in a unidirectional CFRP composite plate; (2) wave propagation in a stiffened cross-ply CFRP plate with delamination.
KEYWORDS: Finite element methods, Wave propagation, Structural health monitoring, Chemical elements, Waveguides, Scattering, Sensors, Data modeling, Ultrasonics, Transducers
This paper presents WaveFormRevealer 2-D (WFR-2D), an analytical predictive tool for the simulation of 2-D
ultrasonic guided wave propagation and interaction with damage. The design of structural health monitoring (SHM)
systems and self-aware smart structures requires the exploration of a wide range of parameters to achieve best detection
and quantification of certain types of damage. Such need for parameter exploration on sensor dimension, location,
guided wave characteristics (mode type, frequency, wavelength, etc.) can be best satisfied with analytical models which
are fast and efficient.
The analytical model was constructed based on the exact 2-D Lamb wave solution using Bessel and Hankel functions.
Damage effects were inserted in the model by considering the damage as a secondary wave source with complex-valued
directivity scattering coefficients containing both amplitude and phase information from wave-damage interaction. The
analytical procedure was coded with MATLAB, and a predictive simulation tool called WaveFormRevealer 2-D was
developed. The wave-damage interaction coefficients (WDICs) were extracted from harmonic analysis of local finite
element model (FEM) with artificial non-reflective boundaries (NRB). The WFR-2D analytical simulation results were
compared and verified with full scale multiphysics finite element models and experiments with scanning laser
vibrometer. First, Lamb wave propagation in a pristine aluminum plate was simulated with WFR-2D, compared with
finite element results, and verified by experiments. Then, an inhomogeneity was machined into the plate to represent
damage. Analytical modeling was carried out, and verified by finite element simulation and experiments. This paper
finishes with conclusions and suggestions for future work.
KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Wave propagation, Finite element methods, Transducers, Chemical elements, Receivers, Active remote sensing, Structural health monitoring, Transmitters, Human-machine interfaces
This paper presents an analytical approach to modeling guided Lamb waves interacting with linear and nonlinear structural damage. The active sensing process using piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) was modeled in the following four steps: (1) guided waves generation by transmitter PWAS (T-PWAS); (2) Lamb wave multi-mode dispersive propagation in the host structure; (3) linear and nonlinear interaction between Lamb waves and damage; (4) guided waves detection by receiver PWAS (R-PWAS). Structural damage was modeled as a new wave source, where guided waves are transmitted, reflected, and mode-converted. In addition, when guided waves interact with nonlinear damage, nonlinear higher harmonics will also be present. Real time sensing signal at R-PWAS was obtained, as well as the time-space wave field and the frequency-wavenumber representation. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) called WaveFormRevealer (WFR) was developed based on this analytical model. High frequency guided wave propagation in thick plates was done first. Beside fundamental modes (S0 and A0), higher wave modes were also observed. These analytical results were verified by experiments. Analytical simulation of linear interaction between Lamb waves and a notch was done next and compared with experiments. New wave packets due to mode conversion at the notch were observed. Subsequently, the nonlinear interaction between Lamb waves and a breathing crack was investigated using a contact finite element model (FEM). Distinctive nonlinear effects were noticed in both FEM simulation and analytical solutions. The paper finishes with summary, conclusions, and suggestions for future work.
KEYWORDS: Ultrasonics, Receivers, Transmitters, Wave propagation, Structural health monitoring, Fourier transforms, Finite element methods, Chemical elements, Signal processing, Complex systems
Most of the nonlinear ultrasonic studies to date have been experimental, but few theoretical predictive studies exist,
especially for Lamb wave ultrasonic. Compared with nonlinear bulk waves and Rayleigh waves, nonlinear Lamb waves
for structural health monitoring become more challenging due to their multi-mode dispersive features. In this paper,
predictive study of nonlinear Lamb waves is done with finite element simulation. A pitch-catch method is used to
interrogate a plate with a "breathing crack" which opens and closes under tension and compression. Piezoelectric wafer
active sensors (PWAS) used as transmitter and receiver are modeled with coupled field elements. The "breathing crack"
is simulated via "element birth and death" technique. The ultrasonic waves generated by the transmitter PWAS
propagate into the structure, interact with the "breathing crack", acquire nonlinear features, and are picked up by the
receiver PWAS. The features of the wave packets at the receiver PWAS are studied and discussed. The received signal is
processed with Fast Fourier Transform to show the higher harmonics nonlinear characteristics. A baseline free damage
index is introduced to assess the presence and the severity of the crack. The paper finishes with summary, conclusions,
and suggestions for future work.
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