Applied Composite Materials

Low-velocity impact-induced delamination detection by use of the S0 guided wave

mode in cross-ply composite plates: a numerical study
--Manuscript Draft--

Manuscript Number:
Full Title: Low-velocity impact-induced delamination detection by use of the S0 guided wave
mode in cross-ply composite plates: a numerical study
Article Type: Original Research
Keywords: Fiber-reinforced plastic composites . Guided waves . Asymmetric delamination . Finite
element method . Material damping
Corresponding Author: khazar hayat
Hanyang University
Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
Corresponding Author Secondary
Information:
Corresponding Author's Institution: Hanyang University
Corresponding Author's Secondary
Institution:
First Author: khazar hayat
First Author Secondary Information:
Order of Authors: khazar hayat
Sung Kyu Ha, PhD
Order of Authors Secondary Information:
Abstract: Finite element method based numerical simulations are performed to identify low-
velocity impact-induced asymmetrically-located delamination in the [0/903]S and
[0/90]2S composite plates, respectively, using a fundamental symmetric guided wave
mode (S0). The wave attenuation effect due to the viscoelasticity of the composite
material is modeled by calculating the Lamb wave attenuation constants and using the
Rayleigh proportional damp-ing model. The estimated sizes and locations of the
delamination in both plates were in good agreement with the experimental
measurements. Moreover, the analysis of wave structure of the impacted plates shows
that when the S0 mode propagates through the damaged region, the delamination
mouth opens up due to the presence of standing waves, which are generated as a
consequence of multiple reflections of trapped waves with the delamination
boundaries.
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Low-velocity impact-induced delamination detection by
use of the S
0
guided wave mode in cross-ply composite
plates: a numerical study
K. Hayat
.
S. K. Ha

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University #1271, Sa1-dong, Ansan, Kyunggi-do, 425-791
South Korea
e-mail: hayatkhaza@hanyang.ac.kr, sungha@hanyang.ac.kr
Tel.: +82-31-400-4066, Fax.: +82-407-1034

Abstract Finite element method based numerical simulations are performed to identify low-
velocity impact-induced asymmetrically-located delamination in the [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S

composite plates, respectively, using a fundamental symmetric guided wave mode (S
0
). The
wave attenuation effect due to the viscoelasticity of the composite material is modeled by
calculating the Lamb wave attenuation constants and using the Rayleigh proportional damp-
ing model. The estimated sizes and locations of the delamination in both plates were in good
agreement with the experimental measurements. Moreover, the analysis of wave structure of
the impacted plates shows that when the S
0
mode propagates through the damaged region, the
delamination mouth opens up due to the presence of standing waves, which are generated as a
consequence of multiple reflections of trapped waves with the delamination boundaries.
Keywords Fiber-reinforced plastic composite, guided waves, delamination, finite element
method.
Introduction
Due to their high specific strength, low density, and corrosion resistant properties, fiber-
reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials are considered to be promising structural mate-
rials. However, it is also well known that these composite materials are prone to damage
caused by accidental impact during manufacturing, assembly, handling, and transportation
because of their low transverse strength. Depending on the impact velocity, the damage can
be in the form of compressive strength reduction, matrix cracking, fiber breakage or delami-
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nation. High velocity impact damage is visible and can be identified by visual inspection.
However, low velocity impact damage, which often manifests as delamination, has a high
rate of occurrence and appears in a subsurface. Contrary to symmetric delamination occurring
near the mid-plane of a composite plate, asymmetric delamination, which is near the plate
surface, is particularly dangerous because it can easily cause buckling under compressive
loads. Moreover, asymmetrical delamination is hard to identify using conventional ultrasonic
normal-incidence pulse-echo techniques because of its location near the structure surface.
Several non-destructive inspection (NDI) techniques such as X-ray or ultrasonic C-scan
are available to identify low-velocity impact-induced delamination in a plate-like composite
structure; however, the inspection process is tedious, costly, and time consuming in large
structures such as composite wind turbine blades. NDI methods based on guided waves have
the potential for long-range inspection of the composite structures. Guided waves are known
to travel long distances, covering large cross-sectional areas of a structure, and to provide in-
formation regarding its integrity. The wave features change as the propagating waves interact
with the defects and geometrical attributes of the structure.
Researchers have used fundamental symmetric (S
0
) and anti-symmetric (A
0
) guided
wave modes, and the changes in the wave features (e.g., time of flight (TOF) and wave am-
plitude attenuation to determine the size and location of the damages in the composite plates
[1-11]. Guo and Cawley successfully used the reflection of the S
0
mode to locate the delami-
nation in the cross-ply composite laminates and observed that the amplitude of the S
0
mode
reflection from a delamination is strongly dependent on the delamination location across the
thickness of the laminate [1]. For delamination located symmetrically across the thickness, no
reflection was observed because of the zero shear stress at that delamination interface. Tan et
al. [2] showed S
0
mode amplitude reduction during scanning over delamination for the unidi-


rectional carbon composite plate. The amplitude attenuation occurs mainly due to the local
stiffness reduction at the damaged region. A quick inspection technique for carbon composite
plates using S
0
mode was presented by Toyama et al. [3]. The proposed damage detection
technique is based on the changes in the wave velocity and the amplitude over the delamina-
tion region. A similar study was also reported for glass composite plates [4]. The time-of-
flight (TOF) and the reflection coefficients of the A
0
and S
0
modes in the pulse-echo configu-
ration were used by Hu et al. [5,6] for delamination detection of the composite laminates. It
was found that the A
0
mode is more effective than the S
0
mode for short length delamination
located near the mid-plane of the laminates. Ramdas et al. studied the interaction of the A
0
mode with symmetric and asymmetric delamination in the composite plates and proposed a
methodology to detect the size of delamination without requiring a base-line signal from
healthy laminates [10,9,11].
Apart from these experiments, the researchers have also used numerical simulations to
study the propagation of the guided waves and their interaction with the defects in the com-
posite structures. Hayashi et al. [12] studied multiple reflection at the delamination edges
for the cross-ply laminates using a strip element method (SEM). The investigation of the in-
fluence of the delamination size and location on the wave propagation in a cantilever multi-
layer beam using the spectral finite element method (SFEM) was reported in [13]. Studies
of the interaction of the A
0
mode with delamination and associated mode conversion using
the finite element method (FEM) have been presented in [10,9,11].
One of the main difficulties involved in simulations of guided wave propagation in fiber
reinforced composites is the modeling of the wave attenuation caused by the materials vis-
coelastic nature. Many authors [5,4,8,10,9,11,6,13-15,12,16,17,1] have performed numerical
work either to compare numerical predictions with experimental findings, and/or to investi-


gate the guided wave propagation in plate type structures, but without modeling the material
damping effect, which is a major source of attenuation of the propagating waves in the com-
posite media. For metallic structures, the material damping effect is small and can be neglect-
ed; however, it becomes significant for the FRP composite materials [18] and should be in-
cluded in simulations. For effective implementation of the NDI technique, numerical simula-
tions with material damping incorporated can better assist understanding of the propagation
of guided waves. Therefore, in the present work, the FEM simulations with material damping
incorporated are carried out to detect and size the low-velocity impact-induced asymmetrical
delamination in the [0/90]
3S
and [0/90
2
]
S
composite plates, respectively, using the propagat-
ing S
0
mode. Moreover, the complex interaction of the S
0
mode with the delamination is also
investigated.
This paper begins with a brief discussion of the numerical simulation of the wave propaga-
tion problem, followed by study of the S
0

mode propagation in an isotropic aluminum plate to
verify the FEM approach. Numerical simulations of guided wave propagation in the intact
and impacted cross-ply composite plates are then carried out. This section also includes in-
formation regarding the calculation of Lamb wave attenuation constants (LACs), which are
used together with the Rayleigh proportional damping model to implement the material
damping effect. In the results and discussion section, a comparison of the results from simula-
tions (with and without material damping incorporated) and from experiments is presented,
followed by estimation of the delamination size and its front-end location. At the end of this
section, the delamination response to the passing S
0
mode and the delamination mouth-
opening phenomenon due to the presence of standing waves is described. Finally, the conclu-
sions and future work are presented.


Numerical Simulation of Guided Wave Propagation
Guided waves require structural boundaries for their propagation. There are two distinct
families of guided wave modes in plate-like structures: symmetric (S
n
) and anti-symmetric
(A
n
), where n denotes the wave mode order. Due to their frequency dependence nature during
propagation, the dispersion curves are drawn showing the relationship between the wave
mode group velocities (Cg) and the product of the frequency and plate thickness (fd). At the
lower values of fd (< 1 MHz-mm), only the fundamental symmetric S
0
and anti-symmetric A
0

modes exist, with the S
0
mode being relatively less dispersive and having high group velocity
than the A
0
mode [5,3,18]. More detailed explanation of guided wave propagation theory and
dispersion curve plots for plate-like structures can be found in Ref. [18].
The guided wave propagation in a structure depends on the excited wave mode and its ex-
citation frequency. In this numerical study, the fundamental S
0
mode is selected to identify
the asymmetrical delamination in the [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
composite plates, respectively.
The excitation frequency of the S
0
mode is 0.3 MHz. The motivation behind the selected
mode, excitation frequency, and cross-ply composite plates, is the experimental results re-
ported by Toyma et al. describing low velocity impact-induced delamination detection in
cross-ply composite plates (i.e. [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
) using the S
0
mode excited at 0.3 MHz
[3]. Another reason is to compare the numerical results with the experimental measurements
and then further use the FE model to investigate the propogating S
0
mode interaction with the
delamination.
In order to invoke the S
0
mode in the plates, a sinusoidal excitation signal s(t) of five cy-
cles with a central frequency of 0.3 MHz enclosed by the Hamming window is used. The ex-
citation signal s(t) can be described by


sin(2 )[0.54 0.46cos(2 / )] /
( )
0 /
ft ft N t N f
s t
t N f
t t + s

>

(1)
where f (in Hz) is the central excitation frequency, and N is the number of cycles within the
excitation signal.
For modeling the guided wave propagation in an elastic medium, the spatial and temporal
resolution of the finite element domain becomes critical for the convergence and accuracy of
the numerical results. For proper spatial resolution, the finite element size should be l
e

min
/20, where
min

is the minimum wavelength of the propagating guided wave mode, estimated
from
min
= C
L
/f
max
,

where C
L
is the bulk longitudinal wave speed in the propagating medium.
For temporal resolution, the time step size should be t min(l
e
/C
L
, 1/(20f
max
)) , where f
max
is
the highest frequency of interest, as recommended in Refs. [19,16]. The numerical simula-
tions are performed using a commercial finite element package ABAQUS EXPLICIT for
modeling the propagation of the S
0
mode excited at 0.3 MHz. In this paper, for all the simula-
tion cases, the finite element size of the discretized domain was 0.134 mm in the direction of
wave propagation, and 0.5 mm in the transverse direction of wave propagation, and the time
step size used was 110
-8
sec, which satisfies both the spatial and temporal resolution re-
quirements.
Modeling of the Guided Wave Propagation in an Aluminum
Plate
To validate the finite element modeling approach for the guided wave propagation prob-
lem, a numerical study is first performed for the S
0

mode travelling in an isotropic plate. An
aluminum plate (Al 6061-T6), under plane strain conditions (
z
= 0), having length L = 500
mm and thickness d = 2 mm was modeled. The material properties used were Youngs modu-


lus E = 70.7 GPa, Poissons ratio = 0.3, and the bulk longitudinal wave speed at C
L

= 6313
m/sec. The excitation signal s(t), described by Eq. (1), was applied in terms of an arbitrary
nodal displacement in region r of the plate (representing the transmitter position). The result-
ant propagating S
0
mode is observed at the nodal position A (at a distance of 90 mm) and
nodal position B (at a distance of 300 mm) away from the transmitter region, as shown in Fig.
1.
The wave structure of the aluminum plate is then analyzed by measuring the in-plane and
out-of-plane nodal displacements (u

and w, respectively) across the plate thickness at section
B-B

at a distance of 300 mm from the excitation region. Fig. 1(d) shows that the S
0
mode
cannot be simply considered as a pure in-plane vibration mode; rather, it is a combination of
both u and w

that varies across the plate thickness. Furthermore, the normalized magnitude of
u is relatively higher than that of w

for an fd value of 0.6 MHz-mm. This observation is gen-
erally true for low values of fd (< 1 MHz-mm) and is consistent with findings described in
Ref. [18].
The both in-plane and out-of-plane nodal displacements can be used to represent the prop-
agating S
0
mode. However, in-plane nodal displacement, due to its relatively higher magni-
tude, is selected for estimation of the S
0
mode velocity. As illustrated in Fig. 1(c), the wave
form of the S
0

mode observed at nodal positions A and B remains nearly unchanged, which
represents its low dispersion characteristic. The S
0

mode velocity is calculated by dividing the
travelled distance X
AB

= 210 mm by the difference in arrival times of the first peak of the S
0
mode arriving at the nodal positions A and B. The calculated group velocity is 5398 m/sec,
comparable to the group velocity of 5363 m/sec estimated from the plotted dispersion curve
for the aluminum plate, shown in Fig. 1(b). This result confirms that the given excitation sig-


nal s(t), applied as an arbitrary in-plane displacement, invokes the S
0
mode, and the observed
propagating mode is, indeed, the S
0

mode.

Fig. 1 (a) S
0
mode excitation in an aluminum plate, (b) dispersion curve plot, (c) the measurement of S
0
mode
velocity, and (d) In-plane u and out-of-plane w displacements across plate thickness
Modeling of the Guided Wave Propagation in the Cross-ply
Composite Plates
Composite material attenuation
Guided waves attenuation is caused by the geometry and material damping of the elastic
media. For the geometric attenuation, no energy dissipates, and it occurs when a propagating
wave mode interacts with the geometrical attributes of a damage region and/or the end
boundary of a plate. However, the material attenuation is associated with the wave energy
dissipation, and is inherently present in all structures. In the composites, the material attenua-
tion causes a significant reduction in the guided wave amplitude and becomes no longer neg-


ligible [18]. It is strongly dependent on factors such as the viscoelastic behavior of the matrix,
the properties of the constituent layers, the fiber direction and the stacking sequence. The ef-
fect of the material attenuation can be incorporated into the simulations by using the Rayleigh
proportional damping model available in ABAQUS [20]:
c m k o | = +
(2)
Eq. (2) shows that the material damping coefficient c can be described by a linear combina-
tion of the mass m and the stiffness k along with the relevant mass and stiffness proportionali-
ty constants ( and , respectively). For modeling the material attenuation effect caused by
the viscoelastic behavior of the composites, both and should be known. Ramadas et al. [7]
showed that these proportionality constants can be expressed in terms of the attenuation coef-
ficient, group velocity, and the central excitation frequency. It is called the Lamb wave At-
tenuation Constants (LACS) and is described below:
2
w w w
2 ; /
i g
k C o | o e = =

(3)
where C
g
is the group velocity of the propagating mode, is the angular frequency of excita-
tion, and k
i
is the viscoelastic material attenuation coefficient.
The propagating mode group velocity in a composite plate can be determined if the ply-level
properties, the stacking sequence, and direction of the Lamb wave is known. The value of k
i
is evaluated from the experiment using the following relation [7]:
1 2 1 2
/ exp( ( ))
i
A A k x x =

(4)
where A
1
and A
2
are the amplitudes of the propagating wave mode observed at positions x
1

and x
2
, respectively.


FEM Simulations of Guided Wave Propagation in the Cross-ply Composite
Plate
In this work, we simulated the experimental results describing the delamination detection
caused by low-velocity impact using the S
0
mode excited at 0.3 MHz in the [0/90
3
]
S

and
[0/90]
2S
carbon fiber-reinforced ( T800H/3631) composite plates (each 300 mm 15 mm
1.072 mm) as reported by Toyama et al. [3]. The detected delaminations were of elliptical
form (i.e. 45mm 28 mm for the [0/90
3
]
S

plate and 60 mm 12 mm for the [0/90]
2S
plate,
respectively) with their major axis oriented along the 0
o
fiber direction, for more detail see
[3].
To avoid the high computational cost associated with modeling of the entire plate domain,
a volume of 300 mm 15 mm 1.072 mm was modeled with 3-dimensional solid finite ele-
ments, and the appropriate boundary conditions were applied. The element type used was
CP3D8R, which is an 8-node, linear brick element with reduced-integration and hour-glass
control, available in ABAQUS [20]. The FE models used for analysis of the S
0
mode propa-
gation in the cross-ply composite plates, before and after impact, are shown in Fig. 2(a-b). It
should be noted that the propagation direction of the S
0
mode is along the 0
o
fiber direction of
the [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates .
It is well-known that a low-velocity impact causes a major delamination at the lowest ply
interface away from the impact side, and such a delamination has an elliptical form with its
major axis oriented along the fiber direction as analytically and experimentally reported in
Refs. [21-26]. Therefore, the delamination in each plate is modeled only at the lowest ply-
interface, and damage at the other interfaces is ignored. Using symmetry conditions, the size
(ab/2) of the modeled delamination is 45 mm 14 mm for the [0/90
3
]
S

plate and 60 mm 6
mm for the [0/90]
2S
plate, respectively. The center of the delamination is positioned at the


distance X=130 mm, which is consistent with the experiment described in Ref. [3]. The de-
lamination is modeled by de-merging the local nodes in the delaminated region (i.e., generat-
ing zero-volume delamination). The inner mating surfaces at the delamination were defined
with a hard contact pressure over-closure relationship using the default master-slave algo-
rithm in ABAQUS [20]. The FE model of the impacted plates having elliptical delamination
is shown in Fig. 2(b).

Fig. 2 FE model for S
0
mode propagation in (a) the intact and (b) the impacted cross-ply composite plates, re-
spectively
In order to excite the required S
0
mode, a sinusoidal signal s(t), described by Eq. (1), is ap-
plied at region r, in terms of arbitrary in-plane nodal displacement. The length of the excita-
tion region r is 25 mm, approximately the size of the piezoelectric element of the Panametric
V414-SB angle beam transducer used in the experiment [3]. The propagating S
0
mode is then
observed in the form of the in-plane displacements u at 21 nodes, each 10 mm apart, covering
the plate inspection length of 210 mm in the x-direction.


Free boundary conditions are imposed for sides FG,EH and v(y) =
x
=
z
= 0

for sides EF,
GH, where v(y) is the nodal displacement in the y-direction and
x
and
z
are the rotational
degrees of freedom about the x and z-axes, respectively. The mechanical properties of a uni-
directional T800H/3631 ply are used, with the longitudinal modulus E
1
= 157.6 GPa, trans-
verse modulus E
2

= 8.67 GPa, shear modulus G
12

= 3.83 GPa, Poissons ratio v = 0.38, ply
thickness t
ply

= 0.134 mm and density = 1571 Kg/m
3
[3].
For modeling the material damping effect of [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90
2
]
S
plates, the LACs values
are need. These can be expressed in terms of the central excitation frequency f , S
0
mode
group velocity C
g
and the viscoelastic material attenuation coefficient k
i
. The value of cen-
tral frequency is 0.3 MHz. The C
g
values are estimated from the dispersion curves of the
propagating S
o
mode through the composite plates, and are 5424 m/sec for the [0/90
3
]s

plate
and 7304 m/sec for [0/90
2
]
S
plate, respectively (see Fig. 8). The k
i
values are determined us-
ing Eq. (4), and the experimental results are shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 The normalized amplitude of the propagating S
0
mode measured during experiment for the intact [0/90
3
]
S

and [0/90]
2S
plates [3]
The estimated k
i
value is 5.25 Nepers per meter (Np/m) for the [0/90
3
]
S
plate and 3.17 Np/m
for the [0/90]
2S
plate. Using Eqs. (3) and (4), the calculated LAC values (
w
/2,
w
/2), which
are used as inputs to the Rayleigh proportional damping model, are (28,471 rad/s and 8.01e-9


s/rad) for the [0/90
3
]
S
plate and (23,183 rad/s and 6.53e-9 s/rad) for the [0/90]
2S
plate, re-
spectively.
Results and discussion
Effects of composite material attenuation
During the simulation, the first peak arrival time and the maximum amplitude of the
propagating S
0
waveform in the cross-ply composite plates are observed. Fig. 4 (a-b) illus-
trates the waveform of the S
0
mode travelling through the intact [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates,
respectively, observed at a distance of 150 mm away from the excitation region. The dash-dot
line describes the case without material damping, and the solid line describes a case with ma-
terial damping incorporated. It can be clearly seen that a significant reduction in the maxi-
mum amplitude of the waveform (approx. 61% for [0/90
3
]
S
plate and approx. 37% for
[0/90]
2S
plate, respectively, at a distance of 150 mm away from excitation region) occurs for
the damping case. However, the first peak arrival time of the waveform remains unchanged.

Fig. 4 Effect of material damping on the S
0
mode amplitude for the intact: (a) [0/90
3
]
S
plate, (b) [0/90]
2S
plate,
respectively
The distribution of the normalized maximum amplitude of the S
0
mode observed from simu-
lation (with and without material damping) and those experimentally measured for the intact
plates (i.e. [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
) is shown in Fig. 5(a-b). The normalized maximum ampli-
tude of the propagating waveform along the inspection length of the plate decreases gradually
as the distance from the excitation region increases. Since the wave attenuation is strongly


dependent on the directional stiffness properties of the plate, the wave attenuation rate ob-
served in the [0/90
3
]
S
plate is higher than that of the [0/90]
2S
plate. It can be seen that the
simulation results without material damping incorporated significantly deviate from the ex-
perimental measurements. However, when the material damping effect is included, good
agreement is found between the simulation and the experiment results for both the plates.
Since the material damping causes a considerable amplitude reduction for composites, simu-
lation of the NDI technique using the change in the amplitude of the propagating mode to
identify the delamination should include the material damping effect.

Fig. 5 Normalized maximum amplitude of the S
0
mode observed from simulation and measured from experi-
ment for the intact plates: (a) [0/90
3
]
S
and (b) [0/90]
2S
, respectively
Velocity increment at delamination
To study the effect of delamination on the propagating S
0
mode, the waveform signal
is observed at a distance of 170 mm and 210 mm away from the excitation region along the
plate length, as illustrated in the schematic of Fig. 6(a). For the intact [0/90
3
]
S
plate, the S
0
waveform observed at a distance of 170 mm, is well maintained, see Fig. 6(b). However, for
the impacted [0/90
3
]
S
plate the S
0
waveform at a distance of 170 mm is no longer preserved;
see Fig. 6(c). The observed waveform is well-attenuated due to the local stiffness reduction
caused by the presence of asymmetrical delamination. It consists of two wave packets. The
leading wave packet shows the transmitted S
0
signal through the delaminated 0
o
layer (i.e.,
the region below the delamination) that arrives earlier due to the velocity increase. The cause


of the velocity increase at the delaminated 0
o
layer is its high fiber direction stiffness as com-
pared to the rest of plate (i.e. the region above the delamination). The following wave packet
corresponds to the transmitted signal through the region above the delamination. Both wave
packets begin to comingle with the passage of time at a distance away from the delamination,
as shown in Fig. 6(c). Similar waveform responses are also observed for the S
0
mode propa-
gating in the intact and impacted [0/90
2
]
S
plate, but are not described here for brevity .

Fig. 6 (a) The schematic of observed propagating S
0
mode waveform in the composite plate; The waveform
results for the [0/90
3
]
S
plate (b) the intact case observed at 170 mm, and (c-d) for impacted case at observed 170
mm and 210 mm away from the excited region, respectively
Estimation of the delamination length and location
The velocity increase at the delamination region causes a decrease in the arrival time of the
S
0
mode for the impacted plate, and provides information regarding the length of the delami-
nation present in that plate, which can be calculated from the following relation [3]:
0 0
/ ( )
i i
a V V V V t = A

(5)
where t

is the difference in the arrival times of the first peak of the S
0
waveform propagating
in the intact and impacted plates, and V
0
and V
i
are the S
0
mode wave velocities in the delam-
inated 0
o
layer and the intact plate, respectively.


The S
0
mode wave velocities for the delaminated 0
o
layer, intact [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S

plates are determined in order to establish the baseline data. For each plate, the arrival times
of the first peak of the transmitted waveform are determined at the nodes 30-150 mm away
from the transmitter in steps of 30 mm. The wave velocities are calculated from dividing the
travelled distances of the S
0
mode by the relevant time durations. The average estimated value
is then taken as the S
0
mode velocity in the relevant plate. The propagating wave velocities of
the intact plates corresponding to an fd value of 0.3 MHz-mm are also determined from the
dispersion curves shown in Fig. 7. There is a good agreement between the S
0
mode velocity
observed from FE simulations, the plotted dispersion curves, and the experiment, as shown in
Table 1.

Table 1 Measurement of the S
0
mode velocity for the intact T800H/3631 cross-ply plates

Plate type
Wave velocity (m/sec) observed from
FEM simulation dispersion curves plots Experiment [21]
0
o
layer 10058 10820 10144
[0/90
3
]
S
5385 5424 5420
[0/90]
2S
7317 7304 7344


Fig. 7 Dispersion curve plots for the 0
o
delaminated layer, [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates, respectively






Table 2 Measurement of delamination length

Plate type

First peak arrival time ( sec )
Delamination length (mm)
Intact case Delaminated case FEM simulation Experiment [21]
[0/90
3
]
S
39.5 35.8 42.9 42
[0/90]
2S
29.6 27.4 59.1 61
After estimating the arrival time of the first peak of the transmitted S
0
waveform observed
at a distance of 210 mm away from the excitation region for intact and impacted plates, the
delamination length a is then calculated using Eq. (5), and is shown in Table 2. It can be seen
that the length of the delamination present in each impacted plate is well-predicted by the
FEM-based numerical simulations.
For estimation of the delamination of the front-edge location, the normalized amplitude of
the transmitted S
0
mode is observed along the inspection length of the impacted plates. Fig. 8
shows the distribution of the normalized maximum amplitude of the S
0
mode observed from
the simulation with damping incorporated and from experiment [3] for the impacted plates.
Good agreement can be seen between the simulation results for the impacted plates
with material damping incorporated and the experiment measurements. As the distance from
the excitation region increases, the normalized amplitude of the S
0
mode gradually decreases.
However, a sudden drop in the amplitude occurs while reaching the delamination region,
which is then approximately maintained even beyond the delamination region. The distance
at which the amplitude transition occurs indicates the location of the delamination front-end.
The estimated front-end locations from the simulation, with material damping incorporated,
are approximately 10.83 cm and 10.5 cm away from the excitation region for the impacted
[0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates, respectively, which are consistent with the experimental results
[3].


The sudden drop in the amplitude over the delamination area can be partly attributed
to wave scattering at the delamination boundaries, wave reflections at the edges, and mode
conversion to generate extra modes. The S
0
mode propagation depends on the fd value of a
plate, and at the delamination region it is subjected to travel through two layers of different
thicknesses with an interfacial discontinuity between them. Consequently, the energy of the
transmitting S
0
mode is divided, also causing amplitude reduction at the delamination.

Fig. 8 Comparison of the normalized maximum amplitude of the S
0
mode observed from simulation with
damping implemented and from the experiment [3] for the impacted plates: (a) [0/90
3
]
S
and (b) [0/90]
2S
plates,
respectively
Delamination mouth opening
In order to understand the delamination response during the passing of the S
0
mode, the
wave structure of the impacted plates is analyzed. The transmitted and reflected modes repre-
sented by S
0
T
and S
0
R
, respectively, are observed in the form of an in-plane and out-of-plane
nodal displacement time histories at node A on the top edge BC and at node A on the bottom
edge DE of the plate at section A-A

(across the middle of delamination) as shown in Fig. 9
(a). Although both nodes A and A are located at the same distance of 130 mm away from the
excitation region but the in-plane displacement histories for the [0/90
3
]
S
plate and the [0/90]
2S

plate, as illustrated in Fig. 9 (b-c) and Fig. 9 (f-g) respectively, shows that the transmitted S
0
T


mode arrives earlier at the bottom node A than at the top node A due to the velocity increase
at the 0
o
delaminated layer. The estimated arrival time reduction due to the velocity increase
for the [0/90
3
]
S
plate and the [0/90]
2S
plate is approximately 3sec and 5.8 sec , respective-
ly. The arrival time reduction for the [0/90]
2S
plate is larger than the [0/90
3
]
S
because the 0
o

delaminated layer length for the [0/90]
2S
plate is higher than that of [0/90
3
]
S
.
Due to the complex interaction between the passing S
0
mode and the boundaries of
the delamination region, several extra modes can be generated. Hu et al. [6] showed that
when the S
0
mode passes through a delamination, four modes are generated at each delami-
nation end (i.e., the front and rear ends): two transmitted modes and two reflected modes. In
this work, to identify the generated modes the in-plane nodal displacement histories are used.
Several modes are generated in the presence of delamination. The amplitude of the generated
modes lowers not only because of the material damping, but also due to the reduced localized
stiffness at the damage area. Moreover, wave overlapping makes it hard to clearly isolate and
identify the generated modes at the delamination boundaries. Only the S
0
R

mode generated
due to the reflection of the transmitted S
0
T
mode from the plate rear-end, is identified. The
mode identification is done based on the group velocity estimated from the dispersion curves
and the time of flight (TOF) of the propagating modes. The transmitted S
0
T
mode and the re-
flected S
0
R
mode generated from the plate rear-end reflection for [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates
are shown in Fig. 9 (b-c) and Fig. 9 (f-g), respectively.
The out-of-plane displacement histories observed at section A-A

were found to be more
useful in gaining insight on the delamination response to the passing S
0
mode. During propa-
gation of the S
0
mode, the delamination mouth is observed to open due to upward defor-
mation of region A and downward deformation of region B, as illustrated in Fig. 9 (d-e) for
the [0/90
3
]
S
plate and Fig. 9 (h-i) for the [0/90]
2S
plate. The delamination mouth remains open


even after the passage of the S
0
mode. This transverse deformation can be attributed to the
reduced local bending stiffness at the delamination region. For both plates, region B experi-
ences more transverse deflection than region A because the bending stiffness of region B is
lower than that of region A. In case of the [0/90]
2S
plate, there is excessive transverse deflec-
tion owing to the delamination length of 61 mm, in comparison to the [0/90
3
]
S
plate where
the delamination length of 45 mm is present.
The delamination mouth is kept open after the passage of the S
0

mode because of the pres-
ence of standing waves, which are generated by the superposition of waves travelling in op-
posite directions and are described by the following equations [27]:
1 2
( , ) cos( ); ( , ) cos( ), u x t A t kx u x t B t kx e e | = = + +

(6a)
1 2
( , ) ( , ) ( , )
2 cos( ) cos( ) ( ) cos( ),
2 2
u x t u x t u x t
B kx t A B t kx
| |
e e
= +
= + + +

(6b)

where the term u(x,t) shows the superposition of waves u
1
(x,t) and u
2
(x,t) travelling in oppo-
site directions with amplitudes A and B,

respectively; and k are the frequency and wave-
number, respectively, of the travelling waves, is the arbitrary phase, t and x represent time
and space coordinates and x is the zero-shifted coordinate given by x = x + /(2k). The first
term of Eq. 6(b), containing cos(k x ) cos(t+/2),

describes the standing wave and the se-
cond term, containing cos(t - k x + /2), is for the residual travelling wave.







Fig. 9 (a) Schematic of the impacted plate with the top node A and bottom node A at section A-A; In-plane
and out-of-plane displacement time histories for (b-e) the [0/90
3
]
S
plate and (f-i) the [0/90]
2S

plate,

respectively
When the S
0
mode reaches the delamination region, it is bifurcated and propagates through
regions A and B independently, see Fig. 9 (a). A portion of the transmitted waves is reflected
from the delamination rear-end, which then travels back and is reflected again at the delami-
nation front-end. Due to multiple reflections at the delamination boundary, some part of the
wave energy is captured inside the delamination zone, resulting in the generation of standing
waves. The presence of these standing waves keeps the delamination mouth open. This effect
dissipates with the passage of time as the wave energy leaks out of the delamination bounda-
ries. Fig. 10 shows the out-of-plane nodal displacement observed along the plate-edges BC
(top edge) and DE (bottom edge) at 100 sec, long after the passage of the S
0

mode. It clearly
shows that the delamination mouth, which opened during the passing of the S
0

mode is still
open because of the presence of standing waves.



Fig. 10 Observed out-of-plane nodal displacement at 100 sec, showing the delamination mouth opening for the
impacted plates: (a) [0/90
3
]
S
and (b) [0/90]
2S
, respectively
Practically, this opening of the delamination mouth can be helpful for the identification of
subsurface delaminations using non-contact methods such as scanning laser vibrometry using
a laser vibrometer which is device widely used for vibration measurements in many
engineering applications [28]. In addition, the waveform signals from the laser vibrometer
can be processed further to obtain the guided wave field image of the composite structure to
locate the asymmetrical delamination.
Conclusions
In this study, the composite material damping for the [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates is
effectively implemented in the numerical simulations using the Rayleigh damping model and
estimating the Lamb wave attenuation constants. The material damping causes considerable
wave attenuation of the propagating S
0
mode, and should be modeled in the simulations.
There is a good agreement between the distribution of the normalized maximum amplitude of
the S
0
mode along the plate length observed from simulation for the intact and impacted
[0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plate with material damping incorporated and the experiment measure-
ments.


From the numerical simulations carried out in this paper, the estimated asymmetric
delamination length and its front edge location for both [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
using the S
0

mode also matches well with the experiment. The delamination length is estimated from the
S
0
mode velocity increment in the 0
o
delaminated layer present at the delamination region for
the impacted [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S
plates, respectively. The wave velocity increases in the 0
o

delaminated layer due to its higher fiber directional stiffness than the rest of the plate. The
delamination front-edge location is determined from the sudden drop in the amplitude of the
S
0
mode over the delamination region.
The wave structure analysis of the impacted composite plates shows the presence of
extra generated modes due to the interaction of the propagating S
0
mode with delamination
boundaries and plate ends. However, only the S
0
R

mode generated from the reflection of the
transmitted S
0
T
from the plate rear-end is identified using the TOF method. Other generated
modes are not identified either because of complicated wave overlaps or/and their low ampli-
tude as the material damping is incorporated in the simulations. Moreover, during the passing
of S
0
mode the mouth of the asymmetrical delamination in the [0/90
3
]
S
and [0/90]
2S

composite plates opens up due to the reduced local bending stiffness. The delamination
mouth is kept open even after the passage of the S
0

mode because of the presence of standing
waves, which are generated from multiple reflections of the wave energy captured in the de-
lamination zone when the S
0
mode passes through.
Future work will be focused on the study of the mouth opening of delamination oc-
curring at other ply interfaces in the composite plates with different layup sequences, during
the passing of the S
0
mode.


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