Guided Wave Propagation in Functionally Graded One-Dimensional Hexagonal Quasi-Crystal Plates

Due to the high brittleness, cracks, holes, and other defects that are easily generated in quasi-crystal structures can affect safe applications in serious cases. For guided wave non-destructive testing, the propagation of Lamb and SH waves in functionally graded one-dimensional hexagonal quasi-crystal plates are investigated. Governing equations of wave motion in the context of Bak's model are deduced and solved by the Legendre orthogonal polynomial method. Dispersion curves, phonon and phason displacement, and stress distributions are illustrated. The convergence of the present method applied to functionally graded quasi-crystal plates is verified. Moreover, the influences of the phonon-phason coupling effect and graded fields on wave characteristics are analyzed. Some new results are obtained: angular frequencies of phason modes always decrease as phonon-phason coupling coefficients, R-i, increase; and phonon and phason displacements of Lamb and SH waves at high frequencies are mainly distributed in the region that contains more quasi-crystal material with a smaller elasticity modulus and less rigidity. The obtained results establish the theoretical foundation of guided wave non-destructive testing for functionally graded quasi-crystal plates.