Ultrasonic guided waves through Coalesence of matrix cracks and delaminations in laminated composites

Composite fabric-matrix interface mismatch during manufacturing and applied loads cause matrix micro-cracks and their evolution toward interface delamination and stiffness reduction. Fatigue and impact loads can grow these matrix cracks further as early damage precursors, which are not easily detectable. We simulate ultrasonic guided wave propagation in laminated composite with matrix crack mixed delamination site to understand better detection possibilities for these damage precursors using the ultrasonic inspection method. Since extremely small wavelength ultrasonic waves attenuate rapidly in composites, whereas long wavelength guided waves may not produce high sensitivity to small-scale defects, therefore we attempt to analyze super-resolution quantitative scheme with suitable frequencies to correlate defect parameters. We employ a time-domain spectral finite element method for fast computation of high-frequency wavefield while accurately resolving the matrix crack-delamination geometric features. Its high-order field interpolation enables us to model the nearfield interactions of the waves with the transverse micro-cracks and further with an evolved macro-scale delamination. The computational scheme is aimed to scale to complex defect local field simulations and cover larger size composite structures. This is achieved due to a mathematically consistent diagonalized mass matrix property which makes the implicit time marching-based computation highly efficient for highly resolved and large-size finite element systems. The transient dynamic stress field around the cracks modulates the guided wave mode packets. We analyze the characteristics of the signal sensitivities due to the defect features, most notably, an interesting correlation between matrix crack density and frequency modulation or sub-band contribution. Wave interaction with the defect region creates weak but distinct reflection patterns while transmitting through the region. The study provides useful and new understanding towards defect size estimation and indicative measure of thickness wise layers of matrix cracks and its coalescence into delamination in terms of energy spectral density of the sub-bands.

Automated summary

The study simulated the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves in laminated composites with matrix crack mixed delamination to better detect early damage. By analyzing the correlation between signal characteristics and defect parameters using suitable frequencies and a super-resolution quantitative scheme, the study provided new understanding towards defect size estimation and indicative measure of matrix crack delamination.