In previous work we have described the detection and location of damage in isotropic materials using fibre Bragg gratings rosettes to directionally detect Lamb waves. To extend this technique to composite materials it is necessary to understand the propagation characteristics of ultrasound in these materials as a function of their orientation with respect to the ply, and also the directional response of fibre Bragg gratings to them. Finite element modeling of Lamb wave propagation in a 0°, 90° carbon fibre plate is described, as are experiments to detect these waves for various orientations of the source and alignments of the FBG transducers. Results of the experiments are interpreted with respect to predictions from the FE modeling and are shown to give good qualitative agreement.

Date Published: 7 April 2008
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6933, Smart Sensor Phenomena, Technology, Networks, and Systems 2008, 69330C (7 April 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.775442

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6933:
Smart Sensor Phenomena, Technology, Networks, and Systems 2008
Wolfgang Ecke; Kara J. Peters; Norbert G. Meyendorf, Editor(s)