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The ultrasonic Lamb wave detection principle can realize the noncontact measurement of liquid level in closed containers. When designing an ultrasonic Lamb wave sensor, it is vital to thoroughly study and select the optimal wedge size at the front of the sensor. In this paper, firstly, we select the best working mode of Lamb waves according to their propagation dispersion curve in aluminum alloy, and we obtain the best angle of wedge through experiments. Secondly, we study the impact of the size of the wedge block on the results, and we obtain the selection method of wedge block parameters. The evaluations show that, when the frequency–thickness product is 3 MHz·mm, the Lamb waves work in the A1 mode, and the experimental effect is the best. At this time, the incident angle of the ultrasonic wave is 27.39°. The wedge thickness should be designed to avoid the near-field area of the ultrasonic field, and we should choose the length as odd multiples of 1/4 wavelength. The rules obtained from the experiment can effectively select the best working mode for ultrasonic Lamb waves, while also providing a basis for the design of the wedge block size in a Lamb wave sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitatively and accurately monitoring the damage to composites is critical for estimating the remaining life of structures and determining whether maintenance is essential. This paper proposed an active sensing method for damage localization and quantification in composite plates. The probabilistic imaging algorithm and the statistical method were introduced to reduce the impact of composite anisotropy on the accuracy of damage detection. The matching pursuit decomposition (MPD) algorithm was utilized to extract the precise TOF for damage detection. The damage localization was realized by comprehensively evaluating the damage probability evaluation results of all sensing paths in the monitoring area. Meanwhile, the scattering source was recognized on the elliptical trajectory obtained through the TOF of each sensing path to estimate the damage size. Damage size was characterized by the Gaussian kernel probability density distribution of scattering sources. The algorithm was validated by through-thickness hole damages of various locations and sizes in composite plates. The experimental results demonstrated that the localization and quantification absolute error are within 11 mm and 2.2 mm, respectively, with a sensor spacing of 100 mm. The algorithm proposed in this paper can accurately locate and quantify damage in composite plate-like structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a method to determine the type of Lamb mode (antisymmetric or symmetric) that propagates through a lithium-ion pouch cell. To determine the type of mode and the group velocity at a specific frequency, two- and three-transducer setups were created. For these setups, it is important that all transducers have the same polarization direction. Two transducers are affixed to the center of the cell at a distance of several centimeters from each other so that the group velocity can be determined. Using cross-correlation, the group velocity of the emerging mode can be calculated. The measurement setup and the processing method was first validated with experiments on acrylic glass and aluminum plates. The measurements were supported with FEM simulations and a numerically calculated model. The output voltages of the receiving piezo-elements obtained in the FEM simulation are in agreement with the underlying theories. The phase shift, which results from the output voltage of the piezo-elements mounted one above the other on different sides of the plate, shows the type of mode. The results of the experimental determination of the Lamb mode that propagates through a lithium-ion pouch cell were validated with a numerically calculated multi-layer model and therefore validate this novel experimental approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical fibers were previously demonstrated to propagate and detect acoustic modes that were converted from Lamb waves for structural health-monitoring applications; typically, a fiber Bragg grating sensor in the optical fiber is used to detect acoustic modes. Acoustic modes can transfer from one fiber to another through a simple adhesive bond coupler, preserving the waveform of the acoustic mode. This paper experimentally investigates the coherence of acoustic waves through the adhesive coupler, using a fiber ring resonator (FRR) configuration. This configuration was chosen because the wave coupled to the second fiber interferes with the original wave after it encircles the fiber ring. We performed this experiment using different geometries of optical fibers in the ring, including a standard single-mode optical fiber, a hollow silica capillary tube, and a large-diameter multi-mode fiber. The results demonstrate that the acoustic wave, when transferring through an adhesive coupler, interferes coherently even when the main and ring fibers are of different types. Finally, we demonstrate that the FRR can be applied for sensing applications by measuring the mode attenuations in the ring due to a changing external environment (water-level sensing) and measuring the optical-path length change in the ring (temperature sensing). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification and regression employing a simple Deep Neural Network (DNN) are investigated to perform touch localization on a tactile surface using ultrasonic guided waves. A robotic finger first simulates the touch action and captures the data to train a model. The model is then validated with data from experiments conducted with human fingers. The localization root mean square errors (RMSE) in time and frequency domains are presented. The proposed method provides satisfactory localization results for most human–machine interactions, with a mean error of 0.47 cm and standard deviation of 0.18 cm and a computing time of 0.44 ms. The classification approach is also adapted to identify touches on an access control keypad layout, which leads to an accuracy of 97% with a computing time of 0.28 ms. These results demonstrate that DNN-based methods are a viable alternative to signal processing-based approaches for accurate and robust touch localization using ultrasonic guided waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyper-velocity impact (HVI) caused by a collision between orbital debris and spacecraft exists widely in outer space, and it poses a threat to spacecraft. This paper proposes a probabilistic hyperbola method based on Lamb waves analysis to detect and locate the impact in stiffened aluminum (Al) plates. A hybrid model using finite element analysis (FEA) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) was developed to gain an insight into characteristics of HVI-induced acoustic emission (AE) and shock wave propagation. In addition, an experimental validation was carried out with a two-stage light gas gun, giving an aluminum projectile a velocity of several kilometers per second. Then a quantitative agreement is obtained between numerical and experimental results, demonstrating the correctness of the hybrid model and facilitating the explanation of received AE signals in experiments. Signal analysis shows that the shock wave quickly converts to a Lamb wave as it propagates from the HVI spot, and the zeroth-order symmetric wave mode (S0) dominates wave signal energy. The S0 wave is dispersive and shows a wide frequency range, with dominant magnitudes below 500 kHz. Finally, the HVI experiment results obtained with a light gas gun showed that the average location error could be less than 1 cm with only four sensors for a 1-square-meter stiffened metal plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using plates of weak piezoeletcric crystal (quartz) loaded with various liquids, it is shown that along with common modes, whose sensitivity towards different liquid parameters comparable with each other, there are some uncommon modes, whose amplitude responses towards viscosity η are much larger than towards temperature T and electric conductivity σ. The search of the modes with the selective properties is accomplished by varying plate thickness h, crystal orientation, wave length λ, and mode order n. It is found that all modes possessing the property are characterized by small surface-normal displacement, avoiding wave radiation into adjacent liquid, large in-plane displacements, enhancing viscous coupling the modes and liquids, and small electro-mechanical constant, reducing electro-acoustic interaction. Basing on the modes, the sensor prototypes with selective operation are developed and tested for η from 1 to 1500 cP, σ from 0 to 1.2 S/m, and t from 0 to 55 °C. Because of operation at ultrasonic frequency (tens MHz) the prototypes have different sensitivities in various η-ranges: 0.3 dB/cP for 1–20 cP, 0.12 dB/cP for 20–100 cP, and 0.015 dB/cP for 100–1500 cP. Viscosity responses of the prototypes become comparable with their electric outputs only for η < 2 cP. Temperature responses are almost zero in air, but when plate is coated with liquid they increase depending on liquid properties, allowing measurements of the temperature dependence of the liquid viscosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental circumferential shear horizontal (CSH0) wave is of practical importance in monitoring corrosion defects in large-diameter pipes due to its virtually non-dispersive characteristics. However, so far, there have been limited CSH0 wave transducers which can be used to constitute a structural health monitoring (SHM) system for pipes. Moreover, the CSH0 wave’s capability of sizing the corrosion-like defect has not yet been confirmed by experiments. In this work, firstly, the mechanism of exciting CSH waves was analyzed. A method based on our previously developed bidirectional SH wave piezoelectric transducers was then proposed to excite the pure CSH0 mode and first order circumferential shear horizontal (CSH1) mode. Both finite element simulations and experiments show that the bidirectional transducer is capable of exciting pure CSH0 mode traveling in both circumferential directions of a 1-mm thick steel pipe from 100 to 300 kHz. Moreover, this transducer can also serve a sensor to detect CSH0 mode only by filtering circumferential Lamb waves over a wide frequency range from 100 to 450 kHz. After that, a method of sizing a rectangular notch defect by using CSH0 wave was proposed. Experiments on an 11-mm thick steel pipe show that the depth and circumferential extent of a notch can be accurately determined by using the proposed method. Finally, experiments were performed to investigate the reflection and transmission characteristics of CSH0 and CSH1 waves from notches with different depths. It was found that transmission coefficients of CSH0 mode decrease with the increasing of notch depth, which indicates that it is possible to monitor the depth change of corrosion defects by using CSH0 wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipeline inspection is a topic of particular interest to the companies. Especially important is the defect sizing, which allows them to avoid subsequent costly repairs in their equipment. A solution for this issue is using ultrasonic waves sensed through Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) actuators. The main advantage of this technology is the absence of the need to have direct contact with the surface of the material under investigation, which must be a conductive one. Specifically interesting is the meander-line-coil based Lamb wave generation, since the directivity of the waves allows a study based in the circumferential wrap-around received signal. However, the variety of defect sizes changes the behavior of the signal when it passes through the pipeline. Because of that, it is necessary to apply advanced techniques based on Smart Sound Processing (SSP). These methods involve extracting useful information from the signals sensed with EMAT at different frequencies to obtain nonlinear estimations of the depth of the defect, and to select the features that better estimate the profile of the pipeline. The proposed technique has been tested using both simulated and real signals in steel pipelines, obtaining good results in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the propagation of ultrasonic waves in structures, there is usually energy loss due to ultrasound energy diffusion and dissipation. The aim of this research is to characterize the ultrasound energy diffusion that occurs due to small-size damage on an aluminum plate using piezoceramic transducers, for the future purpose of developing a damage detection algorithm. The ultrasonic energy diffusion coefficient is related to the damage distributed in the medium. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic energy dissipation coefficient is related to the inhomogeneity of the medium. Both are usually employed to describe the characteristics of ultrasound energy diffusion. The existence of multimodes of Lamb waves in metallic plate structures results in the asynchronous energy transport of different modes. The mode of Lamb waves has a great influence on ultrasound energy diffusion as a result, and thus has to be chosen appropriately. In order to study the characteristics of ultrasound energy diffusion in metallic plate structures, an experimental setup of an aluminum plate with a through-hole, whose diameter varies from 0.6 mm to 1.2 mm, is used as the test specimen with the help of piezoceramic transducers. The experimental results of two categories of damages at different locations reveal that the existence of damage changes the energy transport between the actuator and the sensor. Also, when there is only one dominate mode of Lamb wave excited in the structure, the ultrasound energy diffusion coefficient decreases approximately linearly with the diameter of the simulated damage. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic energy dissipation coefficient increases approximately linearly with the diameter of the simulated damage. However, when two or more modes of Lamb waves are excited, due to the existence of different group velocities between the different modes, the energy transport of the different modes is asynchronous, and the ultrasonic energy diffusion is not strictly linear with the size of the damage. Therefore, it is recommended that only one dominant mode of Lamb wave should be excited during the characterization process, in order to ensure that the linear relationship between the damage size and the characteristic parameters is maintained. In addition, the findings from this paper demonstrate the potential of developing future damage detection algorithms using the linear relationships between damage size and the ultrasound energy diffusion coefficient or ultrasonic energy dissipation coefficient when a single dominant mode is excited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a highly sensitive flexural plate-wave (FPW)-based microsystem for rapid detection of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in human urine. First, a circular-type interdigital transducer (IDT) was integrated with a circular-type silicon-grooved reflective grating structure (RGS) to reduce insertion loss. Then, with lower insertion loss (-38.758 dB), the FPW device was used to develop a novel THC biosensor, and the results reveal that this FPW-THC biosensor has low detection limit (1.5625 ng/mL) and high mass-sensitivity (126.67 cm2/g). Finally, this biosensor was integrated with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board and discrete components for prototyping a FPW readout system, whose maximum error was 12.378 kHz to ensure that the linearity of detection up to R-square is equal to 0.9992. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional contact sensors used for Lamb wave-based ultrasonic inspection, such as piezo-electric transducers, measure omnidirectional strain and do not allow distinguishing between fundamental symmetric and anti-symmetric modes. In this paper, we show that the use of a single fibre Bragg grating created in a dedicated microstructured optical fibre allows one to directly make the distinction between these fundamental Lamb wave modes. This feature stems from the different sensitivities of the microstructured fibre to axial and transverse strain. We fabricated carbon fibre-reinforced polymer panels equipped with embedded microstructured optical fibre sensors and experimentally demonstrated the strain waves associated with the propagating Lamb waves in both the axial and transverse directions of the optical fibre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) are non-contact, ultrasonic transducers that are usually kept within 5 mm from the sample surface to obtain a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). One important issue associated with operation on a ferromagnetic plate is that the strong attraction force from the magnet can affect measurements and make scanning difficult. This paper investigates a method to generate fundamental, symmetric Lamb waves on a ferromagnetic plate. A coil-only, low-weight, generation EMAT is designed and investigated, operating at lift-offs of over 5 mm. Another design of an EMAT is investigated using a rectangular magnet with a much higher lift-off than the coil, of up to 19 mm. This results in a much lower force between the EMAT and sample, making scanning the EMAT much easier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because the time reversal operator of Lamb waves varies with frequency in composite structures, the reconstructed signal deviates from the input signal even in undamaged cases. The damage index captures the discrepancy between the two signals without differentiating the effects of time reversal operator fromthose of damage. This results in the risk of false alarm. To solve this issue, a modified time reversal method (MTRM) is proposed. In this method, the frequency dependence of the time reversal operator is compensated by two steps. First, an amplitude modulation is placed on the input signal, which is related to the excitability, detectability, and attenuation of the Lamb wave mode. Second, the damage index is redefined to measure the deviation between the reconstructed signal and the modulated input signal. This could indicate the presence of damage with better performance. An experimental investigation is then conducted on a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminate to illustrate the effectiveness of the MTRM for identifying damage. The results show that the MTRM may provide a promising tool for health monitoring of composite structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided waves in plate-like structures have been widely investigated for structural health monitoring. Lamb waves and shear horizontal (SH) waves, two commonly used types of waves in plates, provide different benefits for the detection of various types of defects and material degradation. However, there are few sensors that can detect both Lamb and SH waves and also resolve their modal content, namely the wavenumber-frequency spectrum. A sensor that can detect both waves is desirable to take full advantage of both types of waves in order to improve sensitivity to different discontinuity geometries. We demonstrate that polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) film provides the basis for a multi-element array sensor that detects both Lamb and SH waves and also measures their modal content, i.e., the wavenumber-frequency spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key issues in the fight against the smuggling of goods has been the development of scanners for cargo inspection. X-ray-based radiographic system scanners are the most developed sensing modality. However, they are costly and use bulky sources that emit hazardous, ionizing radiation. Aiming to improve the probability of threat detection, an ultrasonic-based technique, capable of detecting the footprint of metallic containers or compartments concealed within the metallic structure of the inspected cargo, has been proposed. The system consists of an array of acoustic transceivers that is attached to the metallic structure-under-inspection, creating a guided acoustic Lamb wave. Reflections due to discontinuities are detected in the images, provided by an imaging algorithm. Taking into consideration that the majority of those images are sparse, this contribution analyzes the application of Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques in order to reduce the amount of measurements needed, thus achieving faster scanning, without compromising the detection capabilities of the system. A parametric study of the image quality, as a function of the samples needed in spatial and frequency domains, is presented, as well as the dependence on the sampling pattern. For this purpose, realistic cargo inspection scenarios have been simulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, various flexural plate-wave (FPW)-based biosensors with low phase velocity, low operation frequency, high sensitivity, and short response time, have been developed. However, conventional FPW transducers have low fabrication yield because controlling the thickness of silicon/isolation/metal/piezoelectric multilayer floating thin-plate is difficult. Additionally, conventional FPW devices usually have high insertion loss because of wave energy dissipation to the silicon substrate or outside area of the output interdigital transducers (IDTs). These two disadvantages hinder the application of FPW devices. To reduce the high insertion loss of FPW devices, we designed two focus-type IDTs (fan-shaped and circular, respectively) that can effectively confine the launched wave energy, and adopted a focus-type silicon-grooved reflective grating structure (RGS) that can reduce the wave propagation loss. To accurately control the thickness of the silicon thin-plate and substantially improve the fabrication yield of FPW transducers, a 60 °C/27 °C two-step anisotropic wet etching process was developed. Compared with conventional FPW devices (with parallel-type IDTs and without RGS), the proposed FPW devices have lower insertion loss (36.04 dB) and higher fabrication yield (63.88%). Furthermore, by using cystamine-based self-assembled monolayer (SAM) nanotechnology, we used the improved FPW device to develop a novel FPW-based carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) biosensor for detection of colorectal cancer, and this FPW-CEA biosensor has a low detection limit (5 ng/mL), short response time (<10 min), high sensitivity (60.16-70.06 cm²/g), and high sensing linearity (R-square = 0.859-0.980). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To make clear the mode conversion behavior of S0-mode lamb wave and SH0-plate wave converting to the longitudinal mode guided wave and torsional mode guided wave in a pipe, respectively, the experiments were performed based on a previous built pipe inspection system. The pipe was wound with an L-shaped plate or a T-shaped plate as the waveguide, and the S0-wave and SH0-wave were excited separately in the waveguide. To carry out the objective, a meander-line coil electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) for S0-wave and a periodic permanent magnet (PPM) EMAT for SH0-wave were developed and optimized. Then, several comparison experiments were conducted to compare the efficiency of mode conversion. Experimental results showed that the T(0,1) mode, L(0,1) mode, and L(0,2) mode guided waves can be successfully detected when converted from the S0-wave or SH0-wave with different shaped waveguides. It can also be inferred that the S0-wave has a better ability to convert to the T(0,1) mode, while the SH0-wave is easier to convert to the L(0,1) mode and L(0,2) mode, and the L-shaped waveguide has a better efficiency than T-shaped waveguide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature variations have significant effects on propagation of Lamb wave and therefore can severely limit the damage detection for Lamb wave. In order to mitigate the temperature effect, a temperature compensation method based on baseline signal reconstruction is developed for Lamb wave-based damage detection. The method is a reconstruction of a baseline signal at the temperature of current signal. In other words, it compensates the baseline signal to the temperature of current signal. The Hilbert transform is used to compensate the phase of baseline signal. The Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is used to compensate the amplitude of baseline signal. Experiments were conducted on two composite panels to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results show that the proposed method could effectively work for temperature intervals of at least 18 °C with the baseline signal temperature as the center, and can be applied to the actual damage detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new cross-hole tomography imaging (CTI) method for variable-depth defects in metal plates based on multi-mode electromagnetic ultrasonic Lamb waves (LWs). The dispersion characteristics determine that different modes of LWs are sensitive to different thicknesses of metal plates. In this work, the sensitivities to thickness variation of A0- and S0-mode LWs are theoretically studied. The principles and procedures for the cooperation of A0- and S0-mode LW CTI are proposed. Moreover, the experimental LW imaging system on an aluminum plate with a variable-depth defect is set up, based on A0- and S0-mode EMAT (electromagnetic acoustic transducer) arrays. For comparison, the traditional single-mode LW CTI method is used in the same experimental platform. The imaging results show that the computed thickness distribution by the proposed multi-mode method more accurately reflects the actual thickness variation of the defect, while neither the S0 nor the A0 single-mode method was able to distinguish thickness variation in the defect region. Moreover, the quantification of the defect's thickness variation is more accurate with the multi-mode method. Therefore, theoretical and practical results prove that the variable-depth defect in metal plates can be successfully quantified and visualized by the proposed multi-mode electromagnetic ultrasonic LW CTI method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prognostics and health management techniques have drawn widespread attention due to their ability to facilitate maintenance activities based on need. On-line prognosis of fatigue crack propagation can offer information for optimizing operation and maintenance strategies in real-time. This paper proposes a Lamb wave-particle filter (LW-PF)-based method for on-line prognosis of fatigue crack propagation which takes advantages of the possibility of on-line monitoring to evaluate the actual crack length and uses a particle filter to deal with the crack evolution and monitoring uncertainties. The piezoelectric transducers (PZTs)-based active Lamb wave method is adopted for on-line crack monitoring. The state space model relating to crack propagation is established by the data-driven and finite element methods. Fatigue experiments performed on hole-edge crack specimens have validated the advantages of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laminate composites which are widely used in the aeronautical industry, are usually subjected to frequency variation of environmental temperature and excessive humidity in the in-service environment. The thermal fatigue and moisture absorption in composites may induce material degradation. There is a demand to investigate the coupling damages mechanism and characterize the degradation evolution of composite laminates for the particular application. In this paper, the degradation evolution in unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite laminates subjected to thermal fatigue and moisture absorption is characterized by Lamb waves. The decrease rate of Lamb wave velocity is used to track the degradation evolution in the specimens. The results show that there are two stages for the progressive degradation of composites under the coupling effect of thermal cyclic loading and moisture diffusion. The present work provides an alternative to monitoring the degradation evolution of in-service aircraft composite Laminates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-service structural health monitoring of composite aircraft structures plays a key role in the assessment of their performance and integrity. In recent years, Fibre Optic Sensors (FOS) have proved to be a potentially excellent technique for real-time in-situ monitoring of these structures due to their numerous advantages, such as immunity to electromagnetic interference, small size, light weight, durability, and high bandwidth, which allows a great number of sensors to operate in the same system, and the possibility to be integrated within the material. However, more effort is still needed to bring the technology to a fully mature readiness level. In this paper, recent research and applications in structural health monitoring of composite aircraft structures using FOS have been critically reviewed, considering both the multi-point and distributed sensing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic emission (AE) testing is a widely used nondestructive testing (NDT) method to investigate material failure. When environmental conditions are harmful for the operation of the sensors, waveguides are typically mounted in between the inspected structure and the sensor. Such waveguides can be built from different materials or have different designs in accordance with the experimental needs. All these variations can cause changes in the acoustic emission signals in terms of modal conversion, additional attenuation or shift in frequency content. A finite element method (FEM) was used to model acoustic emission signal propagation in an aluminum plate with an attached waveguide and was validated against experimental data. The geometry of the waveguide is systematically changed by varying the radius and height to investigate the influence on the detected signals. Different waveguide materials were implemented and change of material properties as function of temperature were taken into account. Development of the option of modeling different waveguide options replaces the time consuming and expensive trial and error alternative of experiments. Thus, the aim of this research has important implications for those who use waveguides for AE testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural health monitoring using noninvasive methods is one of the major challenges that aerospace manufacturers face in this decade. Our work in this field focuses on the development and the system integration of millimetric piezoelectric sensors/ actuators to generate and measure specific guided waves. The aim of the application is to detect mechanical flaws on complex composite and alloy structures to quantify efficiently the global structures' reliability. The study begins by a physical and analytical analysis of a piezoelectric patch. To preserve the structure's integrity, the transducers are directly pasted onto the surface which leads to a critical issue concerning the interfacing layer. In order to improve the reliability and mitigate the influence of the interfacing layer, the global equations of piezoelectricity are coupled with a load transfer model. Thus we can determine precisely the shear strain developed on the surface of the structure. To exploit the generated signal, a high precision analog charge amplifier coupled to a double T notch filter were designed and scaled. Finally, a novel joined time-frequency analysis based on a wavelet decomposition algorithm is used to extract relevant structures signatures. Finally, this paper provides examples of application on aircraft structure specimens and the feasibility of the system is thus demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the reliability of a Lamb wave visualization technique and to obtain more information about structural damages (e.g., size and shape), we put forward a new signal processing algorithm to identify damage more clearly in an inspection region. Since the kinetic energy of material particles in a damaged area would suddenly change when ultrasonic waves encounter the damage, the new algorithm embedded in the wave visualization technique is aimed at monitoring the kinetic energy variations of all points in an inspection region to construct a damage diagnostic image. To validate the new algorithm, three kinds of surface damages on the center of aluminum plates, including two non-penetrative slits with different depths and a circular dent, were experimentally inspected. From the experimental results, it can be found that the new algorithm can remarkably enhance the quality of the diagnostic image, especially for some minor defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel Lamb wave line sensing technique for crack detection in a welded stiffener. The proposed technique overcomes one of the biggest technical challenges of Lamb wave crack detection for real structure applications: crack-induced Lamb waves are often mixed with multiple reflections from complex waveguides. In particular, crack detection in a welded joint, one of the structural hot spots due to stress concentration, is accompanied by reflections from the welded joint as well as a crack. Extracting and highlighting crack-induced Lamb wave modes from Lamb wave responses measured at multi-spatial points along a single line can be accomplished through a frequency-wavenumber domain analysis. The advantages of the proposed technique enable us not only to enhance the crack detectability in the welded joint but also to minimize false alarms caused by environmental and operational variations by avoiding the direct comparison with the baseline data previously accumulated from the pristine condition of a target structure. The proposed technique is experimentally and numerically validated in vertically stiffened metallic structures, revealing that it successfully identifies and localizes subsurface cracks, regardless of the coexistence with the vertical stiffener. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic manipulation of microparticles and cells has attracted growing interest in biomedical applications. In particular, the use of acoustic waves to concentrate particles plays an important role in enhancing the detection process by biosensors. Here, we demonstrated microparticle concentration within sessile droplets placed on the hydrophobic surface using the flexural wave. The design benefits from streaming flow induced by the Lamb wave propagated in the glass waveguide to manipulate particles in the droplets. Microparticles will be concentrated at the central area of the droplet adhesion plane based on the balance among the streaming drag force, gravity, and buoyancy at the operating frequency. We experimentally demonstrated the concentration of particles of various sizes and tumor cells. Using numerical simulation, we predicted the acoustic pressure and streaming flow pattern within the droplet and characterized the underlying physical mechanisms for particle motion. The design is more suitable for micron-sized particle preparation, and it can be valuable for various biological, chemical, and medical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When impact damage occurs in carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) structures, it is barely visible but may cause significant degradation in the mechanical properties of the structure. Hence, a structural health monitoring (SHM) system that can be installed in CFRP mobility structures and is sensitive to impact damage is needed. In this study, we attempted to establish an SHM system based on ultrasonic guided waves, which are generated by inputting a broadband chirp signal into a film-like piezoelectric actuator. The relationship between impact damage size and maximum time-of-flight (ToF) delay was investigated for three types of CFRP plates: woven, non-woven, and hybrid laminates. As a result, it was found that the maximum ToF delay increased linearly with an increase in the damage size for all CFRP laminates. Moreover, the amplitude of the A0 mode was found to be significantly affected by the damage length in the wave propagation direction. Thus, this SHM method using chirp ultrasonic waves can quantitatively evaluate the size and extent of the impact damage in CFRP laminates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of experiments was designed and conducted to investigate the vibrational ultrasonic response of a thin magnetostrictive patch bonded to a glass plate, with changes in static and dynamic magnetic fields applied to the patch. Such arrangements are often used as a means of generating guided waves in pipes or plates, by attaching a patch to a sample's surface. The effect of varying the applied static and dynamic magnetic field's amplitudes and directions and the frequency of the dynamic magnetic field was studied. It was demonstrated that the vibration of the magnetostrictive patch could be controlled and enhanced by optimizing the magnetic fields. It was also shown that for low-amplitude dynamic magnetic fields, Lorentz forces generated within the patch and the resonant frequency of the patch could also contribute to the enhancement of the vibration of the patch for low-amplitude fields. For high-amplitude dynamic magnetic fields, the magnetostriction effect can be the main transduction mechanism, which can be optimized for non-destructive testing and inspection purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with conventional linear ultrasonic inspection methods, which are sensitive only to severe defects, nonlinear ultrasonic inspection methods are better for revealing micro-cracks in thin plates. However, most nonlinear ultrasonic inspection methods have only been experimentally investigated using bulk or Rayleigh waves. Numerical studies, especially numerical simulations of Lamb ultrasonic waves, have seldom been reported. In this paper, the interaction between nonlinear S0 mode Lamb waves and micro-cracks of various lengths and widths buried in a thin metallic plate was simulated using the finite element method (FEM). The numerical results indicate that after interacting with a micro-crack, a new wave-packet was generated in addition to the S0 mode wave-packet. The second harmonics of the S0 mode Lamb waves and the new wave-packet were caused by nonlinear acoustic effects at the micro-crack. An amplitude ratio indicator is thus proposed for the early detection of buried micro-cracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The active structural health monitoring (SHM) approach for the complex composite laminate structures of wind turbine blades (WTBs), addresses the important and complicated problem of signal noise. After illustrating the wind energy industry's development perspectives and its crucial requirement for SHM, an improved redundant second generation wavelet transform (IRSGWT) pre-processing algorithm based on neighboring coefficients is introduced for feeble signal denoising. The method can avoid the drawbacks of conventional wavelet methods that lose information in transforms and the shortcomings of redundant second generation wavelet (RSGWT) denoising that can lead to error propagation. For large scale WTB composites, how to minimize the number of sensors while ensuring accuracy is also a key issue. A sparse sensor array optimization of composites for WTB applications is proposed that can reduce the number of transducers that must be used. Compared to a full sixteen transducer array, the optimized eight transducer configuration displays better accuracy in identifying the correct position of simulated damage (mass of load) on composite laminates with anisotropic characteristics than a non-optimized array. It can help to guarantee more flexible and qualified monitoring of the areas that more frequently suffer damage. The proposed methods are verified experimentally on specimens of carbon fiber reinforced resin composite laminates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new omni-directional electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) for the ultrasonic Lamb wave (ULW) tomography imaging (TI) of defects in metallic plates. The proposed EMAT is composed of a permanent magnet and a coil with a contra-flexure structure. This new EMAT coil structure is used for omni-directional ULW transmission and reception and ULW TI for the first time. The theoretical background and the working principles of this EMAT are presented and analyzed. The experimental results of its use on a 3 mm thick aluminum plate indicate that the EMAT with a contra-flexure coil (CFC) can transmit and receive a pure single A0 mode ULW with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Thus, the extraction of the projection data used for ULW TI may be performed accurately. The circumferential consistency of the projection data is only slightly influenced by the distortion of the eddy current field that is induced by the new CFC with an irregular shape. When the new EMAT array is used for ULW TI using the cross-hole method and SIRT arithmetic, a desirable imaging quality can be achieved, and the estimated size of an artificial corrosion defect agreed well with its actual value . The relation between the reconstruction resolution and the number of the new EMATs used is analyzed. More TI experiments are carried out when the aluminum plate defect is in two different locations relative to the EMAT array, for the further investigation of the performances of the new EMATs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lamb waves have multimodal and dispersion effects, which reduces their performance in damage localization with respect to resolution. To detect damage with fewest sensors and high resolution, a method, using only two piezoelectric transducers and based on orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) decomposition, was proposed. First, an OMP-based decomposition and dispersion removal algorithm is introduced, which is capable of separating wave packets of different propagation paths and removing the dispersion part successively. Then, two simulation signals, with nonoverlapped and overlapped wave packets, are employed to verify the proposed method. Thereafter, with the proposed algorithm, the wave packets reflected from the defect and edge are all separated. Finally, a sparse sensor array with only two transducers succeeds in localizing the defect. The experimental results show that the OMP-based algorithm is beneficial for resolution improvement and transducer usage reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic guided waves provide unique capabilities for the structural health monitoring of plate-like structures. They can detect and locate various types of material degradation through the interaction of shear-horizontal (SH) waves and Lamb waves with the material. Magnetostrictive transducers (MSTs) can be used to generate and receive both SH and Lamb waves and yet their characteristics have not been thoroughly studied, certainly not on par with piezoelectric transducers. A series of multiphysics simulations of the MST/plate system is conducted to investigate the characteristics of MSTs that affect guided wave generation and reception. The results are presented in the vein of showing the flexibility that MSTs provide for guided waves in a diverse range of applications. In addition to studying characteristics of the MST components (i.e., the magnetostrictive layer, meander electric coil, and biased magnetic field), single-sided and double-sided MSTs are compared for preferential wave mode generation. The wave mode control principle is based on the activation line for phase velocity dispersion curves, whose slope is the wavelength, which is dictated by the meander coil spacing. A double-sided MST with in-phase signals preferentially excites symmetric SH and Lamb modes, while a double-sided MST with out-of-phase signals preferentially excites antisymmetric SH and Lamb modes. All attempted single-mode actuations with double-sided MSTs were successful, with the SH3 mode actuated at 922 kHz in a 6-mm-thick plate being the highest frequency. Additionally, the results show that increasing the number of turns in the meander coil enhances the sensitivity of the MST as a receiver and substantially reduces the frequency bandwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computer modelling of condition monitoring sensors can aide in their development, improve their performance, and allow for the analysis of sensor impact on component operation. This article details the development of a COMSOL model for a guided wave-based temperature monitoring system, with a view to using the technology in the future for the temperature monitoring of nozzle guide vanes, found in the hot section of aeroengines. The model is based on an experimental test system that acts as a method of validation for the model. Piezoelectric wedge transducers were used to excite the S 0 Lamb wave mode in an aluminium plate, which was temperature controlled using a hot plate. Time of flight measurements were carried out in MATLAB and used to calculate group velocity. The results were compared to theoretical wave velocities extracted from dispersion curves. The assembly and validation of such a model can aide in the future development of guided wave based sensor systems, and the methods provided can act as a guide for building similar COMSOL models. The results show that the model is in good agreement with the experimental equivalent, which is also in line with theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional tone burst excitation cannot attain a high output resolution, due to the time duration. The received signal is much longer than that of excitation during the propagation, which can increase the difficulty of signal processing, and reduce the resolution. Therefore, it is of significant interest to develop a general methodology for crack quantification through the optimal design of the excitation waveform and signal-processing methods. This paper presents a new crack size quantification method based on high-resolution Lamb waves. The linear chirp (L-Chirp) signal and Golay complementary code (GCC) signal are used as Lamb wave excitation signals. After dispersion removal, these excitation waveforms, based on pulse compression, can effectively improve the inspection resolution in plate-like structures. A series of simulations of both healthy plates and plates with different crack sizes are performed by Abaqus CAE, using different excitation waveforms. The first wave package of the S0 mode after pulse compression is chosen to extract the damage features. A multivariate regression model is proposed to correlate the damage features to the crack size. The effectiveness of the proposed crack size quantification method is verified by a comparison with tone burst excitation, and the accuracy of the crack size quantification method is verified by validation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic guided waves are already used for material characterization. The advantage of these waves is that they propagate in the plane of a plate and their propagation characteristics are sensitive to properties of the material. The objective of this research was to develop an ultrasonic method that could be used to measure the properties of thin plastic polyvinylchloride films (PVC). The proposed method exploits two fundamental Lamb wave modes, A0 and S0, for measurement of a thin film thickness and Young's modulus. The Young's modulus is found from the measured phased velocity of the S0 mode and the film thickness from the velocities of both A0 and S0 modes. By using the proposed semi-contactless measurement algorithm, the Young's modulus and thickness of different thickness (150 µm and 200 µm) PVC films were measured. The uncertainty of thickness measurements of the thinner 150 µm PVC film is 2% and the thicker 200 µm PVC film is 3.9%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nondestructive evaluation of elastic properties plays a critical role in condition monitoring of thin structures such as sheets, plates or tubes. Recent research has shown that elastic properties of such structures can be determined with remarkable accuracy by utilizing the dispersive nature of guided acoustic waves propagating in them. However, existing techniques largely require complicated and expensive equipment or involve accurate measurement of an additional quantity, rendering them impractical for industrial use. In this work, we present a new approach that requires only a pair of piezoelectric transducers used to measure the group velocities ratio of fundamental guided wave modes. A numerical model based on the spectral collocation method is used to fit the measured data by solving a bound-constrained nonlinear least squares optimization problem. We verify our approach on both simulated and experimental data and achieve accuracies similar to those reported by other authors. The high accuracy and simple measurement setup of our approach makes it eminently suitable for use in industrial environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, an acoustic waveguide sensor based on multiple mode conversion of surface acoustic waves at the solid-liquid interfaces has been introduced for the concentration measurement of binary and ternary mixtures, liquid level sensing, investigation of spatial inhomogenities or bubble detection. In this contribution the sound wave propagation within this acoustic waveguide sensor is visualized by Schlieren imaging for continuous and burst operation the first time. In the acoustic waveguide the antisymmetrical zero order Lamb wave mode is excited by a single phase transducer of 1 MHz on thin glass plates of 1 mm thickness. By contact to the investigated liquid Lamb waves propagating on the first plate emit pressure waves into the adjacent liquid, which excites Lamb waves on the second plate, what again causes pressure waves traveling inside the liquid back to the first plate and so on. The Schlieren images prove this multi reflection within the acoustic waveguide, which confirms former considerations and calculations based on the receiver signal. With this knowledge the sensor concepts with the acoustic waveguide sensor can be interpreted in a better manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The propagation of the fundamental quasi-symmetric Lamb mode S0 travelling along 3C-SiC/c-AlN composite plates is theoretically studied with respect to the AlN and SiC film thickness, the acoustic wave propagation direction and the electrical boundary conditions. The temperature effects on the phase velocity have been considered for four AlN/SiC-based electroacoustic coupling configurations, specifically addressing the design of temperature-compensated, enhanced-coupling, GHz-range electroacoustic devices. The gravimetric sensitivity and resolution of the four temperature-stable SiC/AlN composite structures are theoretically investigated with respect to both the AlN and SiC sensing surface. The SiC/AlN-based sensor performances are compared to those of surface acoustic waves and Lamb S0 mode mass sensors implemented on bulk conventional piezoelectric materials and on thin suspended membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a liquid multi-parameter decoupling method with only one Lamb wave sensor is presented. In a Lamb wave sensor, antisymmetric modes (A01 mode for low frequency, A03 mode for high frequency) and symmetric modes (S0 mode) are used to detect multiple parameters of a liquid, such as its density, sound velocity, and viscosity. We found they can play very different roles in the detections. For example, the A01 mode is very sensitive to the liquid's density but the A03 mode is sensitive to the sound velocity. Here, the A0 mode is used to identify the density of the detected liquid and with this density value we obtained the viscosity by the amplitude shifts of the S0 mode. This could be a way to distinguish an unknown liquid with high sensitivity or to solve the problem of selectivity of label-free detection on biosensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nondestructive evaluation of carbon fiber reinforced material structures has received special attention in the last decades. Usage of Ultrasonic Guided Waves (UGW), particularly Lamb waves, has become one of the most popular techniques for damage location, due to their sensitivity to defects, large range of inspection, and good propagation in several material types. However, extracting meaningful physical features from the response signals is challenging due to several factors, such as the multimodal nature of UGW, boundary conditions and the geometric shape of the structure, possible material anisotropies, and their environmental dependency. Neural networks (NN) are becoming a practical and accurate approach to analyzing the acquired data using data-driven methods. In this paper, a Convolutional-Neural-Network (CNN) is proposed to predict the distance-to-damage values from the signals corresponding to a transmitter-receiver path of transducers. The NN input is a 2D image (time-frequency) obtained as the Wavelet transform of the acquired experimental signals. The distances obtained with the NN are the input of a novel damage location algorithm which outputs a bidimensional image of the structure's surface showing the estimated damage locations with a deviation of the actual position lower than 15 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the possibility of using nonlinear ultrasonic guided waves for early-life material degradation in metal plates is investigated through both computational modeling and study. The analysis of the second harmonics of Lamb waves in a free boundary aluminum plate, and the internal resonance conditions between the Lamb wave primary modes and the second harmonics are investigated. Subsequently, Murnaghan's hyperelastic model is implemented in a finite element (FE) analysis to study the response of aluminum plates subjected to a 60 kHz Hanning-windowed tone burst. Different stages of material degradation are reflected as the changes in the third order elastic constants (TOECs) of the Murnaghan's model. The reconstructed degradations match the actual ones well across various degrees of degradation. The effects of several relevant factors on the accuracy of reconstructions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates and evaluates the technology of using plate waves to detect the locations and sizes of circular holes and cracks in plates. Piezoelectric ceramic discs surface-mounted on both sides of an aluminum alloy plate were used as narrow-frequency plate wave actuators and sensors, and the antisymmetric plate wave signal was analyzed by wavelet transform in the time-frequency domain. The damage location and frequency spectrum characteristics were identified by the wave through time-of-flight difference and signal analysis of the damage scattered wave group. The plate wave signal of the damaged plate included the scattered wave signal and the plate wave signal transmitted directly between the piezoelectric discs. Under ideal conditions, the plate wave signal indicating damage can be obtained by subtracting the plate wave signal in a plate without damage from the plate wave signal scattered from actuators to sensors. This study established an optimization program based on the simplex algorithm to inversely calculate the location of the plate damage. The developed damage location objective function has a unique global minimum value that can ensure the accuracy of the damage location calculation, and good results were obtained in experiments. The spectral characteristics of the scattered plate wave were related to the type, size, wave propagation path, and incident angle of the damage. Numerical analyses of scattered spectra for various damages are needed as references to compare with experimental results in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bolted joints are fundamental to numerous structural components in engineering practice. Nevertheless, their failure or even their loosening can lead to insufficient performance and reduced structural safety. This study presents a theoretical development and experimental investigation into nonlinear guided-wave mixing for integrity monitoring of bolted joints in plates. Combinational harmonics generated due to nonlinear Lamb wave mixing and contact acoustic nonlinearity at the bolted joints were used to evaluate the applied torque level in the joint. The area of the power spectral density in the region of the sum combinational harmonic bandwidth is found to be highly correlated to the applied torque level at the joint. Moreover, the effect of the number of cycles and thus the time duration of the excitation is investigated. The results show that the combinational harmonics remain robust for different numbers of cycles in detecting bolt loosening. The findings presented in this study also provide physical insight into the phenomena of nonlinear Lamb wave mixing for evaluating applied torque in bolted joints, and the results help further advance the use of nonlinear guided waves for damage detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a modified imaging algorithm was implemented to improve the imaging accuracy for defects located on a structure. Based on analysis of the Lamb wave mode, a guided ultrasonic wave inspection technique was applied, which was able to illustrate images of defects in a 6 mm steel plate simulating containment liner plate (CLP) in nuclear power plants. The dominant Lamb wave mode was determined through short-time Fourier transform waveform analysis and imaging verification. Following tomography verification, limitations of the antisymmetric mode in the thick steel plate were identified. In addition, a modified shape factor, based on the energy distribution factor according to the beam pattern and beam width, was suggested for field applications and improved imaging accuracy. Results of the analysis revealed a beam skewing phenomenon for the Lamb wave mode. In the case of S0 2.7 MHz·mm, skewing as well as distortion effects are not observed in the experiment, while the S0 modes at 2.64 and 2.74 MHz·mm show either of them. Considering skewing width, the size of the shape function was modified. Application of the modified shape function allows us to obtain more accurate image to actual defect shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, beam focusing in lithium niobate plate was studied for fundamental anti-symmetric (A0) and symmetric (S0) Lamb waves, and the shear-horizontal (SH0) wave of zero-order. Using the finite element method, appropriate configuration of the interdigital transducer with arc-like electrodes was modeled accounting for the anisotropy of the slowness curves and dispersion of the modes in the plate. Profiles of the focalized acoustic beams generated by the proposed transducer were theoretically analyzed. Based on the result of the analysis, relevant delay lines were fabricated and transfer functions (insertion loss) of the line were measured for SH0 wave in YX-lithium niobate plate. Using an electron scanning microscope, distribution of the electric fields of the same wave were visualized. The results of this study may be useful for hybrid devices and sensors combining nano and acoustoelectronic principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article is focused on the analysis of the state of the art of sensors for guided ultrasonic waves for the detection and localization of impacts for structural health monitoring (SHM). The recent developments in sensor technologies are then reported and discussed through the many references in recent scientific literature. The physical phenomena that are related to impact event and the related main physical quantities are then introduced to discuss their importance in the development of the hardware and software components for SHM systems. An important aspect of the article is the description of the different ultrasonic sensor technologies that are currently present in the literature and what advantages and disadvantages they could bring in relation to the various phenomena investigated. In this context, the analysis of the front-end electronics is deepened, the type of data transmission both in terms of wired and wireless technology and of online and offline signal processing. The integration aspects of sensors for the creation of networks with autonomous nodes with the possibility of powering through energy harvesting devices and the embedded processing capacity is also studied. Finally, the emerging sector of processing techniques using deep learning and artificial intelligence concludes the review by indicating the potential for the detection and autonomous characterization of the impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this investigation, we propose a motionless polarizing structured illumination microscopy as an axially sectioning and reflective-type device to measure the 3D surface profiles of specimens. Based on the spatial phase-shifting technique to obtain the visibility of the illumination pattern. Instead of using a grid, a Wollaston prism is used to generate the light pattern by the stable interference of two beams. As the polarization states of two beams are orthogonal with each other, a polarization pixelated CMOS camera can simultaneously obtain four phase-shifted patterns with the beams after passing through a quarter wave plate based on the spatial phase-shifting technique with polarization. In addition, a focus tunable lens is used to eliminate a mechanical moving part for the axial scanning of the specimen. In the experimental result, a step height sample and a concave mirror were measured with 0.05 µm and 0.2 mm repeatabilities of step height and the radius of curvature, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]