The Interaction of Lamb Waves with Solid-Solid Interfaces.

This paper deals with the topic of the interaction of Lamb waves, more specifically the A0 and S0 modes, with a solid-solid interface. This solid-solid interface is the contact between two dry, rough surfaces and could represent a kissing bond in an adhesive joint or the contacting surfaces of a bolted joint. In this paper, a very thick elastomer with high internal damping is loaded against one surface of a glass plate to create a solid-solid interface. The principal effect is shown to be increased attenuation of the guided waves propagating along the glass plate. This attenuation is caused by leakage of energy from the plate into the elastomer, where it is dissipated due to high viscoelastic damping. It is shown that the increase in attenuation is strongly dependent on the compressive load applied across the solid-solid interface. This interface is represented as a spring layer in a continuum model of the multi-layered system. Both normal and shear stiffnesses of the interface are quantified from the attenuation of A0 and S0 Lamb waves measured at each step of the compressive loading. © 2003 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]