Experimental verification of the interface wave method to detect interlaminar damage of a metal multilayer structure

Abstract

The interface wave traveling along the boundary of two materials has been studied for nearly a century. However, experiments, engineering applications, and interface wave applications to the non-destructive inspection of interlaminar composite have developed slowly. In this research, an experiment that applies Stoneley waves (a type of interfacial wave between two solid half-spaces) is implemented to detect the damage in a multilayer structure. The feasibility of this method is also verified. First, the wave velocity and wave structure of Stoneley waves at a perfectly bonded aluminum-steel interface are obtained by solving the Stoneley wave dispersion equation of two elastic half-spaces. Thereafter, an experiment is conducted to measure the Stoneley wave velocity of an aluminum-steel laminated beam and to locate interlaminar cracks by referring to the Stoneley wave velocity and echo wave time. Results indicate that the location error is less than 2%. Therefore, Stoneley waves show great potential as a non-destructive inspection method of a multilayer structure.

Keywords

interface waves / Stoneley waves / interlaminar damage / multilayer structure / crack localization

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Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg