Interactive Simulation and Visualization of Lamb Wave Propagation in Isotropic and Anisotropic Structures

Structural health monitoring systems allow a continuous surveillance of the structural integrity of operational systems. As a result, it is possible to reduce time and costs for maintenance without decreasing the level of safety. In this paper, an integrated simulation and visualization environment is presented that enables a detailed study of Lamb wave propagation in isotropic and anisotropic materials. Thus, valuable information about the nature of Lamb wave propagation and its interaction with structural defects become available.

The well-known spectral finite element method is implemented to enable a time-efficient calculation of the wave propagation problem. The results are displayed in an interactive visualization framework accounting for the human perception that is much more sensitive to motion than to changes in color. In addition, measurements have been conducted experimentally to record the full out-of-plane wave-field using a Laser-Doppler vibrometry setup. An aluminum structure with two synthetic cuts has been investigated, where the elongated defects have a different orientation with respect to the piezoelectric actuator. The resulting wave-field is also displayed interactively showing that the scattered wave-field at the defect is highly directional.