Numerical Simulation of Lamb Wave Propagation in Metallic Foam A - A Parametric Study

Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct
Numerical simulation of Lamb wave propagation in metallic foam sandwich

structures: a parametric study
Seyed Mohammad Hossein Hosseini a,, Abdolreza Kharaghani b, Christoph Kirsch c, Ulrich Gabbert a
a
Institute of Mechanics, Department of Numerical Mechanics, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Universittsplatz 2, 39016 Magdeburg, Germany
Institute of Process Engineering, Department of Thermal Process Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Universittsplatz 2, 39016 Magdeburg, Germany
c
Institute of Computational Physics, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wildbachstrasse 21, 8401 Winterthur, Switzerland
b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Available online 9 November 2012
Keywords:
Lamb wave propagation
Metallic foam structure
Finite element method
Parametric study
a b s t r a c t
The propagation of guided Lamb waves in metallic foam sandwich panels is described in this paper and
analyzed numerically with a three-dimensional nite element simulation. The inuence of geometrical
properties of the foam sandwich plates (such as the irregularity of the foam structure, the relative density
or the cover plate thickness) on the wave propagation is investigated in a parametric study. Open-cell and
closed-cell structures are found to exhibit similar wave propagation behavior. In addition to the nite element model with fully resolved microstructure, a simplied, computationally cheaper model is also considered there the porous core of the sandwich panel is approximated by a homogenized effective
medium. The limitations of this homogenization approach are briey pointed out.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The use of Lamb waves in structural health monitoring (SHM) of
composite structures is a novel technology in modern industries
such as aviation and transportation. Piezoelectric actuators and
sensors are used to trigger and receive Lamb waves in modern micro-structured composite materials [1,2]. Compared to other
recent SHM approaches used to detect damage in composite structures, the benets of the SHM technique based on Lamb waves are
the low cost of the required equipment, the possibility of online
monitoring, as well as its high sensitivity [1].
Among the novel light-weight structures, metallic foam sandwich plates can also be subject to SHM using Lamb waves. Metallic
foams are cellular materials which have been studied since the
1970s [3,4]. An excellent stiffness-to-weight ratio has been reported for steel foams under exural load [5]. It has been shown
that foam panels have a higher bending stiffness than solid steel
sheets of the same weight [6]. The benets of metallic foams compared to conventional materials are in the weight, stiffness, energy
dissipation, mechanical damping, and vibration frequency, and
these materials are used in the mechanical, aerospace, and automotive industry [711]. Based on their pore structure, solid foams
are classied into closed-cell and open-cell foams see Fig. 1 for an
illustration.
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: rsg.931@gmail.com (S.M.H. Hosseini), abdolreza.kharaghani@
ovgu.de (A. Kharaghani), christoph.kirsch@zhaw.ch (C. Kirsch), ulrich.Gabbert
@ovgu.de (U. Gabbert).
0263-8223/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2012.10.039
The application of ultrasonic wave propagation in SHM of foam

sandwich plates has been addressed in several recent publications.
An experimental study of ultrasonic wave propagation in watersaturated cellular aluminum foams using the pulse transmission
method was presented in [13]. The fast and slow longitudinal
waves were identied and it has been shown that the measured
propagation velocities agree with the predictions of Biots theory.
Ultrasonic guided waves were used to detect sub-interface damage
in foam core sandwich structures [14].
In another study, nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy was used
to detect damage in an aircraft foam sandwich panel [15]. Due to
the nonlinear material behavior caused by the presence of damage,
harmonics and sidebands are generated from the interaction between a low-frequency and a high-frequency harmonic excitation
signal. By monitoring these harmonics and sidebands, one can detect structural changes in the material. The capability of the proposed method to detect impact damage was demonstrated.
SHM based on Lamb wave propagation is a relatively new method for foam sandwich structures and has been studied only in a
small number of research publications: damage detection was
achieved using anti-symmetric low-frequency Lamb waves generated by thin piezoelectric discs bonded on the skins of a foam sandwich plate with glass ber skins [16]. In addition to the
experimental test, nite element modeling was used to optimize
the identication procedure. Furthermore, an experimental test
using a non-contact laser doppler vibrometer (LDV) was performed
to scan the panel while exciting it with a surface-bonded piezoelectric actuator [17]. The capability of Lamb waves to detect damage was conrmed by the reected wave fringe pattern obtained
388
S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400
2.1. Geometry generation
5 mm
5 mm
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. Digital photos of cellular aluminum foam structures with: (a) closed-cells
and (b) open-cells [12].
from the LDV scan. The experimental study was supported by theoretical evaluation.
In the present paper, the propagation of Lamb waves in foam
sandwich panels is investigated in a parametric simulation study
a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon is essential
for the design of efcient SHM systems [18]. The dependence of
the wave propagation behavior on different geometrical properties
of the foam sandwich panels, such as the cover plate thickness,
irregularity of the foam cell distribution, and relative density is
investigated. The inuence of the sandwich plate thickness and
of the loading frequency on the wave propagation behavior is also
shown. In addition to a fully resolved nite element model of the
porous microstructure a computationally cheaper, homogenized
model (involving effective mechanical properties) of the porous
layer is also employed, and the quality of this approximation is
assessed.
2. Finite element modeling
A foam sandwich panel consists of two skin plates and a core
layer lled with either open or closed cells, cf. Figs. 1 and 2. Foam
sandwich plates are commonly made of the aluminum alloy T6061
[1]. In this study, 2-D bilinear thin-triangular shell elements are
used to model the closed foam cells and cover plates. Compared
to higher-order shell elements, these 2-D elements are less computationally expensive. However, these elements are not very sensitive to distortion and accurate results require high local
resolution and relatively small elements. Linear straight trusses
with constant cross section are used to model the open-cell foam
structures. Implicit time integration is used to simulate the wave
propagation.
Top cover plate
We use 3-D Voronoi tessellations to represent the geometry of

the cellular material. These tessellations are passed to the nite
element code, where the faces (for closed-cell foams) or the edges
(for open-cell foams) are replaced by plate and beam elements for
the computation. We follow the approach described in [19]: N > 0
points (called nuclei) xi 2 R3 ; i 1; . . . ; N, are placed randomly inside a cubic box with edge length a > 0. We require a minimum distance jxi xjj P d P 0 between any two points xi,xj,i j. This is
achieved by generating the point positions one by one and discarding a new point if it is too close to any of the already accepted
points. Obviously, a solution to this packing problem exists only
if the three parameters N, a and d are somehow related. In practice,
if no solution is found for the given parameters, we repeat the random point generation process with a slightly smaller value of d, until a solution is found. The Voronoi cell Ci associated to the nucleus
xi is dened as the set of points in 3-D which are closer to xi than to
any other nucleus xj,j i:
C i fx 2 R3 jjx xi j < jx xj j 8jig;
i 1; . . . ; N:
Eight laterally translated copies of the cubic box, as well as regular

top and bottom layers of nuclei are attached before the Voronoi tessellation is computed. Voronoi cells associated to these additional
nuclei are removed after tessellation. This leads to a bounded structure with periodic lateral boundaries and regular top and bottom
boundaries, as shown in Fig. 2. The Voronoi tessellation is computed
with the free software Qhull [20]. It takes the nuclei positions as an
input and returns vertex coordinates, as well as N lists of vertex
indices associated to each Voronoi cell. Cell faces and edges are
computed from this information in a post-processing step.
To dene the regularity of a 3-D tessellation, it is compared
with the so-called Kelvin structure, which is a uniform, space-lling tessellation made from truncated octahedra (tetradecahedra).
In the Kelvin structure, the minimum distance between nuclei is
given by
p
1=3
6 a3
p
d0
:
2
2N
The regularity a P 0 for an arbitrary structure obtained from the

generation process described above is now dened as
d
:
d0
It satises a = 1 for the Kelvin structure and a = 0 for a completely

random conguration of nuclei (d = 0).
2.2. Homogenization
Nodal load
The Lamb wave propagation is also studied in a simplied

model, in which the porous core layer is described with 3-D solid
elements with effective material properties, cf. Fig. 3.
7.5 mm
Nodal load
Top cover plate

Z
Z
Y
Ho
gen
ize
Bottom cover plate
(a)
dl
aye
(b)
Bottom cover plate
Fig. 2. Foam sandwich plates: (a) closed-cell model; and (b) open-cell model. A
single nodal load is used for Lamb wave generation.
Nodal load
mo
Fig. 3. Simplied model with homogenized core layer.
389
Increment: 100
Time: 2.2e-5 (s)
Original size
Reduced size
Dashpots
Dashpots
Direction of wave propagation
Nodal load (actuator)

A0
S0
Reading point ( sensor)
Displacement (m)
Y
-0
20
19
-0
0e
28
2.
19
-0
0e
79
1.
19
-0
0e
30
1.
20
-0
7e
09
8.
20
4e
20
-0
-0
9e
1e
0
.7
19
3.
-1
19
19
-0
-0
2e
1e
4
.6
5
.1
1
.6
-6
-1
19
01
-0
e-
2e
22
.6
3
.1
-1
-2
-2
Fig. 4. A schematic representation of dashpot elements connected to a plate.
Mathematical models to describe the mechanics of metal foams

were initially developed by Gibson and Ashby [5,21] and are still
widely used [7]. The homogenized elastic moduli for open-cell
and closed-cell foams are given by [7]

Ereps C open Es q2rel and Ereps C closed Es 0:5 q2rel 0:3 qrel ;
4
respectively, where Ereps denotes the representative homogenized
Youngs modulus, Es Youngs modulus of the base material, and
qrel the relative mass density. Note that the relative density of
the foam (qrel) is the primary dependent variable for all foam
mechanics. Copen 2 [0.1, 4] and Cclosed 2 [0.1, 1] (typical ranges) describe effects from the material morphology and manufacturing
process. The expressions (4) are valid for a certain range of relative densities. The GibsonAshby expressions (4) were compared
with experimental data for compressive yield stress and Youngs
modulus [7].
It was concluded that despite of the poor agreement of the exact values for some foam structures with special morphology or
manufacturing process (e.g. steel foams with unusual anisotropy,
special heat treatments, and unusually thin-walled hollow
spheres) the experimental results for typical foam structures remain within the established bounds of Gibson and Ashby [7].
Therefore, the GibsonAshby expressions provide reasonable
effective mechanical properties for most common foam structures. The shear modulus for both open-cell and closed-cell structures is stated as [7]
Greps
3
Ereps :
8
2.3. Wave propagation modeling

A single nodal load is used to generate the Lamb waves. The
load signal of a three and half-cycle narrow band tone burst [1]
is applied as an excitation to the chosen node as shown in Figs. 2
and 6 (F denotes the amplitude of the excitation signal, t denotes
time, fc denotes the central frequency and H denotes the Heaviside
step function):

3:5
2pfc t
sin2pfc t:
1 cos
F in t F Ht H t
fc
3:5
The amount of spurious reections from articial boundaries

will depend on the model size. Consequently, a larger model
has a greater attenuation effect on spurious reected waves. A
system of dashpot elements is used to reduce the inuence of
modes reected from the outer boundaries, cf. Fig. 4. Various
parameters including the damping factor, the direction and number of dashpot elements were examined to design an effective
non-reecting boundary. Fig. 5 illustrates the effect of a nonreecting boundary made of dashpot elements on the wave propagation in a reduced-size open-cell foam sandwich structure. The
attenuation of spurious reected waves helps to identify the
propagating modes in subsequent signal processing for SHM
applications [23].
The major benet of using dashpot elements is the ability to reduce the model size. The reection of waves from articial outer
boundaries shows less dependency on the model size if dashpots
are used. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that
Assuming an isotropic behavior for the foam structures one can calculate the Poissons ratio.
The relative mass density is dened as
q
;
qs
where q and qs are the mass density of the cellular and solid material, respectively. Since the masses of the solid and cellular material
itself are identical (if we assume vacuum between the solid), the
relative mass density is equal to the relative volumetric density
[22],
qrel
Vs
V sample
The right-hand side of Eq. (7) is the relative solid volume, where
Vs is the volume of the solid material (e.g. the material of the cell
walls) and Vsample is the volume of the testing sample (e.g. the
sandwich plate core).
1.510-10
S0 mode
Open-cell
Reflections
110-10
Displacement (m)
qrel
0.510-10
010-10
-0.510-10
-110-10
-1.510-10
fc = 200 kHz
rel = 0.168 (-)
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
0.510-4
With dashpot
Without dashpot
A0 mode
110-4
1.510-4
210-4
Time (s)
Fig. 5. Propagated Lamb wave (nodal displacement signal) in a open-cell foam
sandwich plate with non-reecting boundary (solid line) and without nonreecting boundary using dashpot elements (dashed line).
390
Increment: 50
Time: 1.1e-005 (s)
Displacement (m)
Reading point
(sensor)
3.0e-09
2.1e-09
1.2e-09
3.0e-10
Top Surface
(a)
-6.0e-10
Bottom surface
-1.5e-09
Nodal load
(actuator)
-2.4e-09
-3.3e-09
-4.2e-09
-5.1e-09
-6.0e-09
(c)
(b)
310-9
210-9
Displacement (m)
110-9
010-9
-110-9
-210-9
-310-9
-410-9
-510-9
-610-9
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
0.14
0.16
Arc length (m)
Fig. 6. (a) Wave propagation in an open-cell structure with 0.11 ms delay after the signal is excited actuating and measuring points are also indicated; (b) magnication of
the nodal load at the actuating point and (c) the displacements of the nodes located along the dashed line on the top surface (qrel = 0.168, tp = 1 mm, a = 0.108, fc = 200 kHz).
2.4. Model validation

2.4.1. Numerical validation
The choice of an element size of less than one tenth of the wave
length has resulted in a good numerical accuracy, and the numerical results agree with the experimental results reported in [1,25].
To illustrate the accuracy of the time integration, the residual force
at a randomly chosen node on a traction-free surface may be considered [25]:
t Kut:
F res t M u
In (9), M denotes the mass matrix, K the stiffness matrix, u denotes

the nodal acceleration.
the nodal displacement in Z-direction, and u
Accuracy of time integration may be expressed by how well the

forces are balanced. The time step size is given by the minimum element size divided by the maximum group velocity (the group
Avergae value of (Fres(t)/Finertia(t)) (%)
by decreasing the model size in Y direction, Fig. 4, the number of

dashpot elements in the direction of wave propagation, X, does
not effectively change. Therefore, the attenuation of reected
waves would not change effectively.
The simulation results presented here were obtained by using
the commercial nite element package ANSYS 11.0.
120
fc = 200 kHz
Total time: 0.22 ms
rel = 0.175 (-)
100
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
80
60
40
The chosen value
20
Closed-cell
0
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
Total number of time steps (-)

Fig. 7. Results of time step renement analysis.
2000
391
Top cover plate
Truss elements
simulated wave properties propagated on the honeycomb sandwich plate including the group velocity and the wave length values
remained below 5% for various values of the central loading frequency in the range of 50400 kHz.
Solid elements
Y
X
3. Methodology
Bottom cover plate
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8. A lattice block sandwich plate modeled with (a) truss elements and (b) 3-D
solid elements.
velocity of S0 in the aluminum base material) serves as an initial

choice for the time step size. It is found that this time step is small
enough as the residual force tends close to zero and at each time
step it is one order of magnitude below the elastic (Ku(t)) and iner t forces. Another indication that this is a reasonable
tia M u
choice for the time step size is given by the following convergence
test (Fig. 7): we show the average value of Fres(t)/Finertia(t) at
T = 0.22 ms for different values of the time step size (corresponding
to certain numbers of time steps). Fig. 7 illustrates that the use of
more than 1000 time steps (the value used for the following computations) will not decrease the residual signicantly any further.
The application of 3-D hexahedral solid elements to simulate
the wave propagation have been proved in [1,25]. Therefore, in order to validate the accuracy of the truss elements to model the
wave propagation in open-cell structures, the wave propagation
in a lattice block sandwich plate with truss elements, Fig. 8a, is
compared with a model using 3-D solid elements, Fig. 8b. The
material properties of elements are steel with a cross section of 1
mm2. The average differences between measured wave properties
in both models including the group velocity and the wave length
values are 5.65%, 5.61% and 7.70% respectively, for various values
of the central loading frequency in the range of 50400 kHz.
Furthermore, in order to validate the model of wave propagation in cellular materials using shell elements presented in the previous sections, the numerical results for the wave propagation in a
standard honeycomb sandwich plate with closed-cells modeled by
shell elements (which was available in our laboratory CELLITE
silver standard 69 sandwich plate, Axson GmbH) made of aluminum are compared with experimental measurements from a scanning laser vibrometer [26,27] (cf. Fig. 9 for an illustration of the
experimental setup). The differences between measured and
Lamb waves propagate along elastic plates with two different

mode shapes, denoted by S and A: the plate displacements are
symmetric with respect to the center plane for the S mode and
anti-symmetric for the A mode (cf. Fig. 10). Both modes are dispersive, i. e. their velocities depend on the frequency.
Both Lamb wave modes propagate across the whole thickness of
the plate that is why the damages on the surfaces and the internal
damages can be found and located using the Lamb waves. To avoid
the analysis of the multi-modal Lamb wave signal and to simplify
the signal processing, only the symmetric and anti-symmetric
modes which arrive rst, denoted by S0 and A0, respectively, are
usually considered in the literature on damage detection [29].
To identify different modes in thin plates, one can use sensor
signals obtained at both the top and bottom surfaces of the plate
[30]. In the case of thick sandwich plates however, the group velocities of the S0 and A0 modes are higher at the top surface (where the
excitation takes place) than at the bottom surface. Therefore, the
signal from the bottom sensor cannot be used to identify different
modes in this case. In this paper modes are identied in thick foam
sandwich panels by observing changes in the amplitudes of the arrival signals.
The velocity of different modes along the structure is called
group velocity [31]. The phase velocity is associated with the phase
difference between the vibrations observed at two different points
during the passage of the wave [32]. The phase velocity is used to
calculate the wave length of each mode. The wave length is an
important factor to show the sensitivity of a Lamb wave to detect
damage [31].
In this paper the group velocities are evaluated by transforming
the nodal displacement signal in the vertical direction u(t) using
the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) based on the Daubechies
wavelet D10. As indicated in Eq. (10), the CWT is dened as the
time integral of the signal u multiplied by the wavelet function
w (here the Daubechies wavelet D10). The scale parameter b is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal (the bar indicates complex conjugation) [2,33].
1
WTa; b p
a
1

ta
dt:
utw
b
10
3-D laser scanning

vibrometer
Silicon for damping
Retro
-refle
ctive
Actuator Position
layer
Normalized displacement (-)
1.00
0.75
Top plate sensor

Bottom plate sensor
0.50
Symmetric mode (S0)
0.25
0.00
-0.25
-0.50
-0.75
Anti-symmetric mode (A0)
-1.00
te
osi
mp
Co
la
te p
Fig. 9. Setup for experimental test [28].
0.410-4
0.610-4
0.810-4
110-4
Time (s)
Fig. 10. The rst symmetric (S0) and anti-symmetric (A0) modes are plotted in the
time domain using a normalized nodal displacement obtained from top and bottom
surface of a thin aluminum plate. The central frequency of the loading signal is
100 kHz.
392
40
Maximum value of the

CWT coefficients
S0
35
A0
Scale (-)
Corresponding to the loading

frequency of 200 (kHz)
30
25
20
15
10
Time of the flight for S0
150
200
250
300
Time of the flight for A0

350
400
450
500
Time increment (-)

Fig. 11. The contour plot of the absolute values of the CWT coefcients based on the Daubechies wavelet D10 is shown. The signal is obtained from a Lamb wave propagating
in a honeycomb sandwich panel. The central frequency of the loading signal is 200 kHz.
The time of ight for each Lamb wave mode is given by the location of the maxima of the CWT coefcients, cf. Fig. 11. By dividing
the distance between the sensors by the time of ight one can calculate the group velocity for each mode [33].
Furthermore, a fast Fourier transform algorithm is used to obtain the phase function / [32], from which the phase velocity
and wave length of each mode can be computed:
!
b
F 2 x
/x arctan
;
b
F 1 x
11
where Fb denotes the Fourier transform of the vertical displacement

signal u, with imaginary part b
F 1 and real part b
F 2 . The phase velocity
is a function of angular frequency:
xL
tx
:
/x /0
2pfL
;
/2pf /0
13
where /0 denotes the loading phase, / the measured phase and L

the distance between the actuator and the sensor in axial direction.
Dividing the phase velocity by the loading frequency yields the
wave length as
4000
Etrans
t end
ut2 dt:
15
The post-processing calculations described in this section have

been performed in MATLAB.
4. Results
4.1. Inuence of frequency
Fig. 12 shows that in the chosen range of loading frequencies
the group velocity of the S0 mode is independent of the loading frequency. However, the group velocity of the A0 mode increases as
the loading frequency increases. The wave lengths of both modes
decrease as the loading frequency increases (Fig. 13). Fig. 14 indicates that the A0 mode transmits more energy on the surface in
the lower frequency range. As the frequency exceeds the so-called
4000
Open-cell
3500
Group velocity (m/s)
14
t start
Closed-cell
3000
2500
2000
1500
S0 top
1000
A0 top
The energy transmission rate of the wave describes the leaky

behavior of the propagating waves within a sandwich panel [30].
The magnitudes of the energy transmission rate at the top and bottom surfaces indicate how deep waves can travel inside a sandwich
panel. The integral over the squared received displacement signal,
u(t), is used to dene the energy transmission proportion within
this paper [33]:
3500
500
tf
12
Considering the relation between the angular frequency x and the

linear frequency f, x = 2pf, the phase velocity can be expressed in
terms of linear frequency as
tf
kf
S0 bottom
rel = 0.168 (-)

= 0.11 (-), tp = 1 mm
50
100
150
A0 bottom
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
200
250
Frequency, fc (kHz)
300
350
400
50
100
150
200
250
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 12. The group velocity vs. the central frequency fc of the loading signal, with constant geometry.
300
350
400
393
0.07
0.07
Closed-cell
A0 top
0.04
S0 bottom
A0 bottom
0.03
0.02
0.01
Wave length (m)
S0 top
0.05
Wave length (m)
Open-cell
0.06
0.06
50
100
150
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
rel = 0.168 (-)

= 0.11 (-), tp = 1 mm
0.05
0
200
250
300
350
400
50
100
150
Frequency, fc (kHz)
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Closed-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
S0 top
10-34
A0 top
rel = 0.168 (-)

10-37
S0 bottom
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
10-40
50
100
A0 bottom
150
200
250
300
350
Energy transmission proportion (J.m/N)
Fig. 13. The wave length vs. the central frequency fc of the loading signal, with constant geometry.
Open-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
10-34
10-37
10-40
400
50
100
Frequency, fc (kHz)
150
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 14. The energy transmission vs. the central frequency fc of the loading signal, with constant geometry. A logarithmic scale has been used here.
3000
3000
Closed-cell
2500
2000
1500
S0 top
1000
A0 top
fc = 200 kHz
500
0
S0 bottom
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
0.14
2500
Open-cell
2000
1500
1000
500
A0 bottom
0
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
0.24
Relative density, rel (-)
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
Fig. 15. The group velocity vs. the relative density qrel, where tp, a and fc are constant.
critical frequency (which is 300 kHz in this case) the S0 mode

transmits the same amount of energy as the A0 mode.
damping occurs as the thickness of the solid structure increases.

A similar behavior is observed for open-cell and closed-cell
structures.
4.2. Inuence of geometrical properties

4.2.1. Relative density
Figs. 15 and 16 indicate that the relative density does not play a
signicant role for the group velocity and wave length values.
However, Fig. 17 shows that the energy transmission values decrease as the relative density increases. This indicates that more
4.2.2. Irregularity
Figs. 1820 show that the irregularity factor does not inuence
the wave propagation properties in open-cell and closed-cell foam
sandwich panels. These results also imply that the wave propagation in the panels is independent of the grain size d0 in the range
considered here (since the irregularity factor is proportional to
394
0.018
Closed-cell
0.016
0.016
0.014
0.014
0.012
0.01
0.008
S0 top
0.006
0.004
fc = 200 kHz
0.002
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
0.14
A0 top
Wave length (m)
Wave length (m)
0.018
Open-cell
0.012
0.01
0.008
0.006
0.004
S0 bottom
0.002
A0 bottom
0
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
0.24
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
Closed-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
S0 top
10-34
10-37
10-40
A0 top
fc = 200 kHz
S0 bottom
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
0.14
A0 bottom
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
Fig. 16. The wave length vs. the relative density qrel, where tp, a and fc are constant.
Open-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
10-34
10-37
10-40
0.24
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
Fig. 17. The energy transmission vs. the relative density qrel, where tp, a and fc are constant. A logarithmic scale has been used here.
3000
3000
Closed-cell
2000
1500
S0 top
1000
500
0
Open-cell
2500
A0 top
fc = 200 kHz
rel = 0.17 (-)
S0 bottom
2000
1500
1000
500
A0 bottom
tp = 1.00 mm
0.2
2500
0
0.4
0.6
0.8
0.2
Irregularity factor, (-)
0.4
0.6
0.8
Fig. 18. The group velocity is plotted over the irregularity factor a, where tp, qrel and fc are constant.
d0, cf. Eq. (3)). The grain size of a typical foam structure, d0, does
not exceed 1 mm [7]. Figs. 16 and 19 indicate that the average
wave length is at least one order of magnitude larger than the typical grain size. If the wave length is very large compared to the
characteristic length scale of the foam structure, the wave will
not be inuenced by variations in the microstructure, which explains why the irregularity has little inuence on the wave
propagation.
pendent of the cover plate thickness. However, the group velocity

and the wave length of the S0 mode in open-cell structures and A0
mode in both open-cell and closed-cell structures increase slightly
as the cover plate thickness increases. Fig. 23 shows that the energy transmission of the propagated wave increases signicantly
as the cover plate thickness increases. This phenomenon indicates
that a thicker cover plate transmits more energy to the structure.
4.3. Cell morphology
4.2.3. Cover plate thickness

It is shown in Figs. 21 and 22 that both the group velocity and
the wave length of the S0 mode in closed-cell structures are inde-
Comparison of the wave behavior in open-cell and closed-cell

structures is highlighted and discussed in this section. The ratio
395
0.018
Closed-cell
0.016
0.016
0.014
0.014
Wave length (m)
Wave length (m)
0.018
0.012
0.01
0.008
S0 top
0.006
0.004
fc = 200 kHz
0.002
rel = 0.17 (-)
A0 top
0.012
0.01
0.008
0.006
0.004
S0 bottom
0.002
A0 bottom
tp = 1.00 mm
Open-cell
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Closed-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
S0 top
10-34
A0 top
fc = 200 kHz
10-37
10-40
S0 bottom
rel = 0.17 (-)
A0 bottom
tp = 1.00 mm
0.2
0.4
0.6
Fig. 19. The wave length is plotted over the irregularity factor a, where tp, qrel and fc are constant.
Open-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
10-34
10-37
10-40
0.8
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Fig. 20. The energy transmission is plotted over the irregularity factor a, where tp, qrel and fc are constant. A logarithmic scale has been used here.
4000
4000
Open-cell
Closed-cell
3500
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
S0 top
1000
A0 top
500
0
fc = 200 kHz
rel = 0.168 (-)
0.75
2500
2000
1500
1000
S0 bottom
A0 bottom
= 0.11 (-)
0.50
3000
500
Open cell
0
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
Cover plate thickness, tp (mm)
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
Fig. 21. The group velocity vs. the thickness of the cover plate tp, where a, qrel and fc are constant.
between different wave properties, Vclosed/Vopen, of the A0 mode at

the top surface of the open-cell and closed-cell foam sandwich panel plotted over the loading frequency, cf. Fig. 24, and geometrical
properties, cf. Figs. 2527. Vopen denotes the value obtained from
the open-cell model and Vclosed denotes the value obtained from
the closed-cell model (logarithmic values are used to compare
energy transmission results). It is shown in Fig. 24 that the deviation between the wave properties in open-cell and closed-cell
structures is minimal if the loading frequency is in the range of
150200 kHz. However, Figs. 2527 show that the geometrical
properties have only a minor effect on the deviation between the
wave properties in open and closed cell structures.
396
0.018
0.018
0.016
0.014
0.014
Wave length (m)
Wave length (m)
Closed-cell
0.016
0.012
0.01
0.008
S0 top
0.006
0.004
0.002
0
A0 top
fc = 200 kHz
rel = 0.168 (-)
0.50
0.75
0.01
0.008
0.006
0.004
S0 bottom
0.002
A0 bottom
= 0.11 (-)
0.012
Open-cell
0
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
Closed-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
S0 top
10-34
10-37
10-40
A0 top
fc = 200 kHz
rel = 0.168 (-)
S0 bottom
A0 bottom
= 0.11 (-)
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
Fig. 22. The wave length vs. the thickness of the cover plate tp, where a, qrel and fc are constant.
Open-cell
10-25
10-28
10-31
10-34
10-37
10-40
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
Fig. 23. The energy transmission vs. the thickness of the cover plate tp, where a, qrel and fc are constant. A logarithmic scale has been used here.
4.4. Homogenization
Using a homogenized model is much cheaper computationally
than the fully resolved model described in Section 2. As an example, an open-cell structure with a = 11 and qrel = 0.168 is considered. The size of the homogenized model is 2.6 times smaller
than the fully resolved foam structure model and the computation
time is 1.4 times faster. The relative difference (in %) between the
wave propagation properties obtained from the homogenized
model and from the numerical simulation test with the foam sandwich plate have been calculated using (16) and plotted vs. the central frequency of the loading signal. Vhomogenized stands for the value
obtained from the homogenized model and Vfoam stands for the value obtained by numerical simulation of the wave propagation in
1.3
1.3
1.2
Vclosed /Vopen (-)
Vclosed /Vopen (-)
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
1.1
1
0.9
Group velocity
0.8
0.7
top surface
Anti-symmetric mode
top surface
Anti-symmetric mode
rel = 0.168 (-)

= 0.11 (-), tp = 1 mm
50
100
150
0.8
Wave length
Energy transmission
0.7
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 24. The ratio between wave propagation properties in open-cell and closed-cell
structures vs. the central frequency. The results are plotted using Spline
approximation.
Group velocity
fc = 200 kHz
= 0.11 (-)
Wave length
Energy transmission
tp = 1 mm
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
0.24

Fig. 25. The ratio between wave propagation properties in open and closed-cell
approximation.
397
1.3
1.3
top surface
Anti-symmetric mode
1.2
Vclosed /Vopen (-)
Vclosed /Vopen (-)
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
fc = 200 kHz
Group velocity
rel = 0.168 (-)

tp = 1 mm
Wave length
Energy transmission
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
the fully resolved foam sandwich plate (logarithmic values are

used to compare the energy transmission results). A clear similarity can be observed for the group velocity and the energy transmission values for both open and closed cell structures in Figs. 28, 29,
32 and 33, respectively. However, despite the agreement in the
low-frequency range, a clear difference in the computed wave
lengths can be seen for higher frequencies in both open-cell and
100
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.25
2.50
closed-cell foam structures (Figs. 30 and 31). Further studies must

be done to develop a more efcient simplication approach for a
better comparison of wave length values
rel: error 100
50
50
Difference (%)
75
25
0
Closed-cell
rel = 0.168 (-)
V homogenized V foam
:
V homogenized
16
100
75
-75
0.75
approximation.
top surface
Group velocity
-50
Group velocity
Wave length
Energy transmission
approximation.
-25
fc = 200 kHz
rel = 0.168 (-)
= 0.11 (-)
0.50
Difference (%)
top surface
Anti-symmetric mode
bottom surface
25
0
-25
-50
S0 top
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
S0 bottom
-75
A0 top
-100
A0 bottom
-100
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
50
100
Frequency, fc (kHz)
150
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 28. Relative error of the group velocity obtained from the homogenized model compared with the closed foam structure model. The values are plotted vs. the central
frequency of the loading signal.
100
75
75
50
50
Difference (%)
Difference (%)
100
top surface
Group velocity
25
0
-25
-50
-75
Open-cell
rel = 0.168 (-)
bottom surface
25
0
-25
-50
S0 top
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
S0 bottom
-75
A0 top
-100
A0 bottom
-100
50
100
150
200
250
Frequency, fc (kHz)
300
350
400
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 29. Relative error of the group velocity obtained from the homogenized model compared with the open foam structure model. The values are plotted vs. the central
398
100
S0 top
50
Difference (%)
bottom surface
75
Closed-cell
A0 top
25
S0 bottom
50
Difference (%)
75
100
top surface
Wave length
0
-25
0
-25
-50
rel = 0.168 (-)
-50
-75
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
-75
-100
A0 bottom
25
-100
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
50
100
150
Frequency, fc (kHz)
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 30. Relative error of the wave length obtained from the homogenized model compared with the closed foam structure model. The values are plotted vs. the central
100
bottom surface
75
Open-cell
S0 top
50
A0 top
25
S0 bottom
50
Difference (%)
Difference (%)
75
100
top surface
Wave length
0
-25
0
-25
-50
rel = 0.168 (-)
-50
-75
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
-75
-100
A0 bottom
25
-100
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
50
100
150
Frequency, fc (kHz)
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 31. Relative error of the wave length obtained from the homogenized model compared with the open foam structure model. The values are plotted vs. the central
100
75
50
50
Difference (%)
Difference (%)
100
top surface
Energy transmission
75
25
0
-25
-50
-75
-100
Closed-cell
rel = 0.168 (-)
bottom surface
25
0
-25
-50
S0 top
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
S0 bottom
-75
A0 top
A0 bottom
-100
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 32. Relative error of the energy transmission values obtained from the homogenized model compared with the closed foam structure model. The values are plotted vs.
the central frequency of the loading signal.
Eq. (4) with Cclosed = 0.5 and Copen = 2.05 is used in this part. A
variation of Cclosed and Copen within the typical range (cf. Section
2.2) had little effect on the wave propagation in the homogenized
model.
4.5. Conclusion & outlook

The Lamb wave propagation behavior depending on the loading
frequency and geometrical properties (i.e. the relative density, the
399
100
75
75
50
50
Difference (%)
Difference (%)
100
top surface
Energy transmission
25
0
-25
-50
Open-cell
rel = 0.168 (-)
25
0
-25
-50
S0 top
= 0.11 (-)
tp = 1 mm
-75
bottom surface
S0 bottom
-75
A0 top
-100
A0 bottom
-100
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
50
100
Frequency, fc (kHz)
150
200
250
300
350
400
Frequency, fc (kHz)
Fig. 33. Relative error of the energy transmission values obtained from the homogenized model compared with the open foam structure model. The values are plotted vs. the
central frequency of the loading signal.
Table 1
Summary of results showing the dependency of the wave propagation under variations of the loading frequency and geometrical parameters of the foam sandwich plate. "
indicates an increase, indicates no change or slight changes and ; indicates there is a decrease in the respective values.
Central loading frequency

fc"
Relative density qrel"
Irregularity a"
Cover plate thickness
tp"
Group velocity
Wave length
Energy transmission
S0:
A0: "
"
(Closed-cell, S0: )
Below critical frequency: S0", A0;

Above critical frequency: ;
;
"
structural irregularity (grain size) and the cover plate thickness) of

a foam sandwich plate has been studied via numerical simulation.
The results are summarized in Table 1. A similar behavior of the
wave propagation in closed-cell and open-cell structures has been
observed. In order to reduce the computational effort a simplied
homogenized model was used where the micro-structured foam
network has been replaced by brick elements with effective material properties. It has been shown that the group velocity and the
energy transmission by the Lamb waves are equal in the simplied
and in the fully resolved model, whereas the wave lengths obtained for the S0 and A0 modes did not correspond. Further studies
must be carried out in order to develop a better simplication approach. In addition, there are still some open questions on SHM
based on Lamb waves for foam sandwich structures, e.g. nding
the appropriate loading signal for SHM applications [24] as well
as the determination of possible damage which can be detected
by the propagating wave at the signal-processing level [31]. Furthermore, more studies must be carried out to prove the usefulness
of Lamb waves in detecting invisible damage experimentally in
light-weight cellular sandwich structures, including foam sandwich plates.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the German Research Foundation
(DFG) for the nancial support of this research (GA 480/13).
References
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systems, vol. 4327; 2001. p. 290301.
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Numerical Simulation of Lamb Wave Propagation in Metallic Foam A - A Parametric Study

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Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Numerical simulation of Lamb wave propagation in metallic foam sandwich

The application of ultrasonic wave propagation in SHM of foam

S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

2.1. Geometry generation

Top cover plate

We use 3-D Voronoi tessellations to represent the geometry of

C i fx 2 R3 jjx xi j < jx xj j 8jig;

Eight laterally translated copies of the cubic box, as well as regular

The regularity a P 0 for an arbitrary structure obtained from the

It satises a = 1 for the Kelvin structure and a = 0 for a completely

The Lamb wave propagation is also studied in a simplied

Top cover plate

Bottom cover plate

Fig. 3. Simplied model with homogenized core layer.

S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

Direction of wave propagation

Nodal load (actuator)

Reading point ( sensor)

Fig. 4. A schematic representation of dashpot elements connected to a plate.

Mathematical models to describe the mechanics of metal foams

2.3. Wave propagation modeling

The amount of spurious reections from articial boundaries

S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

Arc length (m)

2.4. Model validation

In (9), M denotes the mass matrix, K the stiffness matrix, u denotes

Accuracy of time integration may be expressed by how well the

Avergae value of (Fres(t)/Finertia(t)) (%)

by decreasing the model size in Y direction, Fig. 4, the number of

Total time: 0.22 ms

rel = 0.175 (-)

The chosen value

Total number of time steps (-)

S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

Top cover plate

Bottom cover plate

velocity of S0 in the aluminum base material) serves as an initial

Lamb waves propagate along elastic plates with two different

3-D laser scanning

Normalized displacement (-)

Top plate sensor

Anti-symmetric mode (A0)

Fig. 9. Setup for experimental test [28].

S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

Maximum value of the

Corresponding to the loading

Time of the flight for S0

Time of the flight for A0

Time increment (-)

where Fb denotes the Fourier transform of the vertical displacement

where /0 denotes the loading phase, / the measured phase and L

The post-processing calculations described in this section have

Group velocity (m/s)

Group velocity (m/s)

The energy transmission rate of the wave describes the leaky

Considering the relation between the angular frequency x and the

rel = 0.168 (-)

S.M.H. Hosseini et al. / Composite Structures 97 (2013) 387400

Wave length (m)

Wave length (m)

rel = 0.168 (-)