Impact damage detection in laminated composites by non-linear vibro-acoustic wave modulations

The paper presents an application of nonlinear acoustics for impact damage detection in composite laminates. Two composite plates were analysed. A low-velocity impact was used to damage one of the plates. Ultrasonic C-scan was applied to reveal the extent of barely visible impact damage. Finite element modelling was used to find vibration mode shapes of the plates and to estimate the local defect resonance frequency in the damaged plate. A delamination divergence study was performed to establish excitation parameters for nonlinear acoustics tests used for damage detection. Both composite plates were instrumented with surface-bonded, low-profile piezoceramic transducers that were used for the high-frequency ultrasonic excitation. Both an arbitrary frequency and a frequency corresponding to the local defect resonance were investigated. The low-frequency modal excitation was applied using an electromagnetic shaker. Scanning laser vibrometry was applied to acquire the vibro-acoustic responses from the plates. The study not only demonstrates that nonlinear vibro-acoustic modulations can successfully reveal the barely visible impact damage in composite plates, but also that the entire procedure can be enhanced when the ultrasonic excitation frequency corresponds to the resonant frequency of damage. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.