Guided wave propagation in a honeycomb composite sandwich structure in presence of a high density core

Shirsendu Sikdar, Sauvik Banerjee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A coordinated theoretical, numerical and experimental study is carried out in an effort to interpret the characteristics of propagating guided Lamb wave modes in presence of a high-density (HD) core region in a honeycomb composite sandwich structure (HCSS). Initially, a two-dimensional (2D) semi-analytical model based on the global matrix method is used to study the response and dispersion characteristics of the HCSS with a soft core. Due to the complex structural characteristics, the study of guided wave (GW) propagation in HCSS with HD-core region inherently poses many challenges. Therefore, a numerical simulation of GW propagation in the HCSS with and without the HD-core region is carried out, using surface-bonded piezoelectric wafer transducer (PWT) network. From the numerical results, it is observed that the presence of HD-core significantly decreases both the group velocity and the amplitude of the received GW signal. Laboratory experiments are then conducted in order to verify the theoretical and numerical results. A good agreement between the theoretical, numerical and experimental results is observed in all the cases studied. An extensive parametric study is also carried out for a range of HD-core sizes and densities in order to study the effect due to the change in size and density of the HD zone on the characteristics of propagating GW modes. It is found that the amplitudes and group velocities of the GW modes decrease with the increase in HD-core width and density.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)86-97
Number of pages12
JournalUltrasonics
Volume71
Early online date9 Jun 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sep 2016
Externally publishedYes

Cite this