Identification of delamination position in cross-ply laminated composite beams using S0 Lamb mode

In this work, a Lamb wave based technique has been developed for delamination detection in cross-ply laminated beams. By measuring the propagation speed of So Lamb mode and the traveling time of a signal reflected from a delamination site, the location of the delamination can be identified. It has been also confirmed by the experiment that the location of a delamination can be accurately determined by only using the data collected from the sensors in a defect-containing beam, without referring to the baseline signals. Finally, to gain a better understanding of the complex interaction between a Lamb wave and a long delamination, numerical simulations have been carried out using finite element method (FEM). The signal modes generated at the boundaries of the delamination have been analyzed. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.