Leaky Lamb waves in an anisotropic plate. II: Nondestructive evaluation of matrix cracks in fiber-reinforced composites

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the use of leaky Lamb waves for the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of damage in anisotropic materials such as fiber-reinforced composites. Two fundamental acoustic properties of the material, namely, the wave speed and attenuation have been measured. Stiffness is deduced from the wave speed. The damage mode selected for this study is matrix cracking. As expected, the in-plane stiffness decreases and the attenuation increases with an increase in the linear crack density.