1
Structural Damage Detection Using Lamb
Waves for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)
Yongsub Jung
Abstract— The goal of this paper is to research structural
damage detection methods based on lamb waves for structural
health monitoring (SHM). First, fundamental characteristics of
lamb waves are investigated including characteristic equations
and dispersion curves of lamb waves. And mathematical
expressions are avoided as possible as. There is discussion about
optimization of driving frequency, number of cycles and pulse
amplitude to generate fundamental lamb wave modes S0, A0. Next,
which S or A lamb wave modes are suitable for composite or steel
structures are investigated in brief. Several damage detection
methods, using ellipses and array of transducers are reviewed
from the references. Also damage sizing and orientation method
are shown by suggesting the author’s opinions.
I. INTRODUCTION
E MBEDDED nondestructive evaluation(NDE) is an promising
technology which allows transitioning conventional
ultrasonic technology to embedded system structural health
monitoring(SHM). Conventional nondestructive evaluation
methods such as visual inspection, radiography, and
high-frequency based ultrasonic are among the most commonly
used. Despite their wide use in the present, many of the NDE
are not proper for smart structures which require a lightweight,
small and permanently attached actuator/sensor system. An
attractive technology for SHM is the use of lamb waves. The
use of lamb wave as NDE has been acknowledged as a potential
technique. However, because of their complicate characteristic
of motion especially in high frequency region, the earnest
experiment of the lamb waves as a NDE technique are not
commenced until the beginning of 1990s, though the theory of
Lamb waves was introduced in 1917 by H. Lamb who was one
of the first to discover their potential for nondestructive testing.
One of the promising advantages of using Lamb wave is that
Lamb waves are able to cover large area of structures’ elements,
allowing the distance between transmitter and receiver to be
interrogated. Therefore, a line scan is achieved with every
excitation pulse rather than relatively slower point scanning of
conventional ultrasonic technique. Another advantage is
relevant to operation power cost. Since fundamental Lamb
wave modes A0 and S0 suitable for comparatively easier data
The author is with the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor USA (e-mail: yongsub@umich.edu).
processing and those modes are adopted in testing, low
frequency is required. Consequently, less power. There are also
some problems when using Lamb waves. A major drawback is
dispersive characteristic of Lamb waves. Due to that, excitation
stress pulse shape generated by PZT actuators changes as the
waves travel the distance between PZT actuators and sensor.
This makes the interpretation of a received signal by sensor
extremely difficult. Other problem is those anti-symmetrical
and symmetrical modes are simultaneously present at a given
driving frequency. Then, a received signal shows superimposed
Lamb wave modes. This also makes the interpretation difficult.
But the latter problem is easily solved by arranging the
actuators or generating proper excitation pulse shape in
particular way by generating a certain lamb wave mode, that is
Anti-symmetric or symmetric,
In this work, several structural damage detection methods
based on Lamb waves are reviewed. And by considering
advantages and disadvantages of NDE using Lamb waves,
future research direction will be suggested at the end of this
paper. And elementary and fundamental studying of waves is
not explained. That studying can be found in [2].
II. LAMB WAVES
Lamb waves are form of elastic perturbations propagating in
a solid plate with free boundaries [1] (upper and lower surface
of the plate have free boundaries as shown Fig. 1. This type of
wave phenomenon was first described in theory by Horace
Lamb in 1917; however, he never attempted to produce them
[3]. [3] shows that there are two groups of Lamb waves in a
plate, symmetric and anti-symmetric, which satisfy the lamb
wave characteristic equation and boundary conditions and as
mentioned earlier of this paper, each mode can propagate
independently. Independence of each Lamb wave mode can be
identified easily in [2]. The graphical expressions of symmetric
and anti-symmetric mode shape, especially in transverse mode,
of Lamb waves are shown in Fig. 2. There are also longitudinal
motions for each mode. To excite a specific Lamb wave mode,
dispersion curves which describe the propagation of a lamb
waves in a particular material is required. Dispersion curves
plot the phase velocity and group velocity with regard to
frequency and plate thickness product (or frequency). The
derivation of these curves needs the solution to Lamb wave
characteristic equations. Since the solution to the equations is
 2

impossible to be derived directly, it should be solved by

numerically. Lamb wave equations are shown in equation (1)
2π c
k= λ =
phase
and (2), for anti-symmetric and symmetric mode respectively (wave number) (wave length)
[1]. λ ω
ω
f
The group velocity dispersion curve is shown in Fig. 4. The

(
tan d 1−ζ 2 ) (2ζ 2−1)2 most useful curves of these two kinds of curves for long-range

( ζ )
+ = 0
NDE are the group velocity curves since these indicate the
(1)
tan d ξ 2− 2 4ζ 2 1−ζ 2 ξ 2 −ζ 2 velocity of a wave packet.

(
tan d 1−ζ 2 ) (2ζ 2−1)2 III. LAMB WAVE MODE SELECTION

(
tan d ξ 2− 2 ζ )
+
4ζ 2 1−ζ 2 ξ 2 −ζ 2
= 0 (2)
A piezoelectric actuator can generate lamb waves, through a
plate’s thickness, which propagate along the structures for
where the non-dimensional parameters are damage detection. Because the Lamb waves are dispersive,
their propagation along elastic solid generates multi-symmetric
and multi-anti-symmetric Lamb wave modes. To explain the
2 2
d = k t
ξ =c ζ = c
2 t
t 2
t (3) dispersive nature of Lamb waves, suppose a pulse shape which
2 2 2 is not impulse to be a Fourier superposition of harmonic waves
c l c phase
that have different frequencies. Then, as time goes, each
Fourier components of the initial pulse will propagate with its
where t is thickness of a plate, kt is wave number of transverse
own velocity and the various components will become out of
mode of lamb wave and Cphase is phase velocity of lamb wave.
phase relative to their original pulse shape so that the original
The velocities in equation (3) are defined by Lamb’s constants.
pulse shape will become increasingly distorted [2].
Considering back to Lamb waves which is dispersive, received
E Eυ
µ= λ= (4) waves will be very different from the original Lamb waves.
2(1 + υ ) (1 − 2υ )(1 + υ ) Therefore, it makes the received signal processing extremely
difficult. So, for easier signal processing purpose, it is desired
2
=
µ 2
=
(λ + 2µ ) ω to limit the number of Lamb wave modes to two fundamental
c c k = (5) modes, A0 and S0. Also operation power which is required to
t
ρ l
ρ t
ct excite lamb wave can be saved. The way to generate
where ω is a radial driving frequency fundamental Lamb wave modes is to keep frequency and
Substituting (4), (5) into (3), non-dimensional parameters thickness product as low as possible, that is to keep the product
yields below cut-off frequency of first Lamb wave modes (cut-off
frequency is the boundary frequency between propagating and
µ 1 − 2υ
ξ
2 non-propagating waves), but should be not too low because
= =
(λ + 2µ ) 2 − 2υ
there will be more a dispersive range of product of frequency
and plate thickness if the value is too low. This interpretation is
identified in Fig. 4 and in the paper that the interaction of Lamb
µ
ζ
2 E waves with defect on plate was investigated by Alleyne and
= = (6)
ρ c phase 2 ρ (1 + υ )c phase
2 2
Cawley [4], whose results showed the sensitivity of Lamb wave
to defect was strongly dependent on a driving frequency.
Several factors need to be considered for selection of a desired
ωt ωt ρ ωt 2 ρ (1 + υ )
d= = = driving frequency. As you predicted, the first step is to derive
2 ct 2 µ 2 E group dispersion curve Fig. 4 to get the group velocity Cg
which is essential for time of flight information.
where Poisson ratio υ , Young’s modulus E , and density of a An aim for long-range propagation which is the characteristic
material ρ .Finally, equation (3) is substituted into (1) and (2) of Lamb waves is to use wave packets whose shapes do not
change significantly as they travel, since this aids the
and solved for Cphase numerically with regard to frequency and
interpretation of the received signals as well as maintaining
thickness product. The phase velocity dispersion curve is shown
their amplitudes. In general this approach requires the use of
in Fig. 3. The group velocity dispersion curve is derived using
narrowband wave packets whose center frequency is at a
the relationship (7) in [3]
non-dispersive location on one of the curves, that is at a
∂C location where the group velocity does not vary with the
= C +
phase
C k (7)
∂k
g phase frequency. Therefore, narrow bandwidth frequency spectrum is

needed to reduce dispersion effect since there is not many
contribution frequencies compared to broad bandwidth
frequency spectrum. Dispersion phenomenon is that the
original signal is distorted as it travels in a medium due to the
different wave speeds of its component frequencies.
Narrowband and finite pulses can be generated using
sine-modulated burst signals u(t) as a excitation. A signal with
frequency ω and n cycles is yielded using equation (8),
ωt
u (t ) = u 0 sin(
2n
for 0 ≤ t < n
where u0 is the amplitude of sine-modulated burst signals. The
5-cycles windowed sine-modulated burst signals shown in Fig.
5(a) is widely used in the field of nondestructive evaluation for
its good dispersion characteristic and sensitivity to structural
defects [5]. (Fig. 5(b) is from Fast Fourier transform of the 5
cycles signals and Fig. 6. shows the case of 10 cycles input
signals for comparison) And then, it is modulated by a
rectangular function, typically Hanning window, in frequency
domain to prevent energy from spilling over undesired
frequency components. However, it should be noted that
somewhat little dispersion is unavoidable due to finite
excitation cycles. The reason why not using infinite cycle
excitation which will cause exactly one frequency component
contribution is that as the time duration of the pulse lengthens,
it gets more difficult to distinguish reflected signals by damages
from reflected signals by boundary in a plate being monitoring.
Finally, using the driving frequency, we can get two
fundamental Lamb wave modes.
After producing the Lamb wave modes A0 and S0, we need
to think about which one mode is suitable for a certain type of
structure such as composite and steel structures. From [1] and
[3], for a small plate thickness, when frequency and thickness
product goes to closely to “0”, A0 and S0 represent a transverse
and longitudinal wave in a plate respectively. Also, this
characteristic is identified with displacement components
equations [1].
q =
2
− kl
2
=
s,a k s ,a s s ,a k s ,a
where , represent wave number of longitudinal and
k l k t
transverse component of Lamb wave , and
wave number which satisfy symmetric and anti-symmetric
Lamb wave characteristic equation for a given frequency
respectively. When frequency and thickness product goes to
closely “0”, the displacement components equations become
k − s 2 sin (
2 2
U =k +S0 k t
s
2
s
2 s
k s kt s s t normal displacement with regard to mid-plane of a plate
3
q (k − s ) 2 z
2 2
W S0 = kt cos(k − ωt )
k (k + s ) t
s s s
2 2 s
t s s
k sin (k a x − ω t )
z
U a0
= k t
t
2
(11)
W =k 2
a0
k
t
t
cos(k a x − ωt )
k a
) sin(ωt ) (8)
Referencing the axis in Fig. 7, where t is the thickness of a plate,
2π k s and k a are the wave numbers at a given driving frequency
ω which satisfy the symmetric and anti-symmetric Lamb wave
characteristic equation respectively. Therefore, the
anti-symmetric mode is supposed to be used in detection of the
damage in composite structures due to its sensitivity to
delamination damages which is usually parallel with mid plane
of a plate and the symmetric mode is used to detect surface
crack growth normal to mid-span of a plate in steel structures.
This approach is well explained by noticing the direction of the
damages in the Fig. 7.
Final step to generate Lamb wave mode is to select proper
mode from two fundamental modes, that is fundamental
symmetric or anti-symmetric, which can be produced by
keeping frequency below S1 and A1’s cut-off frequency which
is boundary frequency between standing waves and
propagating waves. Then, for a given frequency how can we
generate a pure Lamb wave mode, not two modes? In order to
excite a pure Lamb wave mode, two conditions have to be
simultaneously satisfied. Firstly, the frequency of the excitation
must be appropriate for the desired fundamental mode that has
been already considered. Secondly, the variation of the
excitation with regard to z or x axis at the excitation position
must correspond to the exact mode shape of the Lamb wave
being excited [4]. For example, when we want to generate the
fundamental anti-symmetric mode A0, the reference axis of
variation of the excitation should be z axis, and when
generating the fundamental symmetric mode S0, the reference
axis is x because fundamental anti-symmetric and symmetric
mode represent transverse and longitudinal wave motion
respectively. This pulse variation can be produced by
2
− kt
2
(9) considering two actuators on the surface of bottom and top of a
plate [4]. When two actuators are mounted on opposite side of a
plate and they operate in-phase a symmetric mode is excited,
while when they operate out-of phase an anti-symmetric mode
k , k represent can be generated. The way to do that is shown in Fig. 8.Is more
s a
reliable another way to generate a pure Lamb wave mode,
especially to generate A0 mode for composite structure, is to
introduce a double excitation by two actuators with a certain
distance between them. Both actuators are excited in-phase on
the same surface at a given frequency. This way shows that at a
distance between two actuators which is integer multiple of A0
x − ωt ) mode’s wave length, the contribution of the S0 mode to the
(10) becomes negligible to that of A0. Therefore, S0 mode can be

neglected. More detail is in [7].
IV. OPTIMIZATION FOR LAMB WAVE TESTING
Lamb waves based damage detection method is relatively
new field for nondestructive evaluation. So, there is currently
no standard practice precedent for damage detection via Lamb
wave testing. In fact, every paper about Lamb wave method for
damage detection shows quite different testing set-up. By
optimizing test set-up, cost reduction can be achieved and
researcher can get clearer received signal for easier and faster
signal interpretation. Several test parameters are considered.
The parameters which most affect the experiment result are
actuator and sensor’s dimensions, actuation pulse amplitude,
actuators’ spacing, test material properties and ratio of wave
length to the smallest critical damage size.
A. Actuator and Sensor’s dimensions and geometry
Two kind of actuator and sensor’s geometry are principally
used, or rectangular and circular shape. Rectangular
transducers produce waves which propagate longitudinally and
transversely while circular transducers generate
circumferentially propagating waves. The former is usually
used in linear structural elements like beam plates, if circular
transducers are used in linear structures there will be a huge
number of reflections making interpretation of signal received
by sensors hard. For aerospace structures, which mainly have
circular and big surface area in both directions, x and y
directions, circular transducer is favorable since single small
circular transducer can radially generate Lamb waves and cover
large range of surface area. Ajay Raghavan and Carlos E S.
Cesnik [8] researched the effect of actuator dimensions on the
sensor response to harmonic excitation. And it showed that
sensors’ size should be as small as possible to maximize the
magnitude of received signals.
B. Actuation pulse amplitude
The increase of driving frequency amplitude achieved by
increasing driving voltage on actuators results in clear signals
on sensors. But current structural health monitoring systems
require as low power as possible. So, the optimal driving
voltage on actuators had better be chosen 5-10V and the
amplitude of acquired signals from sensors are usually around
30-60 mV [6], [8].
C. Ratio of wavelength to the smallest critical damage size
For propagating Lamb waves to detect (to contact) all the
damages present in structural elements, half wave length had
better be smaller than the smallest critical damage size as
shown in Fig. 9. Though half wavelength is larger than the
4
critical damage, it is possible to detect the damage. But
sensitivity problem arises. For the purpose of generating more
sensitive Lamb waves which have shorter wave length, large
wave number is required and then, a large wave number needs
high frequency. As shown in Fig. 3, 4, for relatively higher
frequency range, multi Lamb wave modes rather than
fundamental Lamb wave modes exist. This multi Lamb wave
mode make signal interpretation difficult and should be
avoided. Therefore, there is always a trade-off between
sensitivity of Lamb waves and degree of difficulty to process
received signals.
D. Material properties
The relationship between material properties of a specimen and
the speed of the propagating Lamb wave is quiet complex;
however, an understanding is necessary to design an
appropriate damage detection test. The material properties
which effect wave speed are modulus of a material, density
passion ratio and plate thickness. By remembering the group
and phase velocity in equation (5), the effect on modulus,
density and Poisson ratio can be noticed. One of the most
affecting material properties is the plate thickness. The thicker
the plate the faster the speed and higher the dispersion rate for a
given driving frequency
V. DAMAGE DETECTION
Damage detection means the ability to find out damages in
structures which affect serviceability and stability of structures.
In the sense of engineers, ‘damage detection has been done’
means that the characteristics of damages are found out such as
damage location, damage sizing and damage orientation.
The Lamb wave reflection and transmission from the
boundaries and structural flaws enable the location and sizing
of damages. All damage location, sizing and orientation
identification methods’ basis is the information of TOF (Time
of Flight). TOF is acquired by calibrating the elapsed time
while the lamb waves travel from actuators to sensors or
damages. For example, for the purpose of damage location with
using TOF, Fig. 10(b) is considered from [6]. Fig. 10(b) shows
the response of the damaged composite plate where excitation
is produced by four transmitters at a distance. A pulse will be
excited by actuators which also serve as sensors in the edge AB
of the plate as shown in Fig. 10(a). So the first pulse in Fig.
10(b) is the response immediately after the excitation, second
pulse is the reflection from the defect and last one is the
reflection from the edge CD of the plate. When the four
actuators are excited, a separate reflection from the damage is
generated. It is assumed that the pulse propagates with the same
group velocity (Cg) along the plate. Then by measuring the time
(TOF), the pulse needs to propagate over twice the length (2L)
of the plate and by measuring the time, (D td) it needs to
propagate between the actuators and the damage and be
reflected back to the actuators (2x), the location if the defect (x)

is found using the equation:
2 L 2 x (12)
C g
= =
TOF D td
Another damage location method’s basic information is
signal attenuation. Signal attenuation occurs as a wave
propagates through a solid medium due to incomplete energy
transfer between kinetic and elastic potential energy. In
particular the signal attenuation is increased by the presence of
structural defect.
Even though both signal attenuation and TOF information
are used in many experiments, TOF is preferred. The reason is
that higher frequency which is more sensitive to fine structural
damages will result in faster attenuation of signals with
distance resulting in a weak response received by sensors while
not affecting TOF at all.
VI. DAMAGE LOCATION METHODS BASED ON LAMB WAVES
There are two damage detection methods of various damage
detection methods using Lamb waves. One is to use array
transducers bonded in one edge of plate, the other is to use
several pairs of transducers many researchers have adopted as
optimization theory to determine location of the damages. Fig.
10 and Fig. 11 show the difference of arrangement of
transducers between two detection methods. These two
methods are the most common and the simplest to perform
testing.
If a generated wave travels along a plate, it will reach a sensor
on different paths. On the one hand the wave will travel
towards the sensor directly; on the other hand it will reach the
sensor via reflections on boundaries or structural discontinuity,
damage. For the purpose of locating structural damages, exact
paths of reflected Lamb waves don’t need to be known. Only
the paths of reflected Lamb waves from defects are our
interests.
A. Ellipse method using grid shaped arrangement of
transducers
The problem of location of damage can be easily solved if an
ellipse is considered with the two transducers positioned at its
focal points (using several pairs of transducers) [9]. The
fundamental basis in this location method for the damage
detection in plates is TOF information of Lamb wave
propagation and reflection from damages. And it should be
assumed that constant group wave velocity to know the sum of
the distance between the linear distance from the actuator to the
damage to sensor and the linear distance from the damage to
sensor. In fact, the assumption of the constant group velocity
along the distance between sensors and actuators is reliable
since, when choosing a driving frequency, the frequency is in a
less dispersive frequency range (frequencies close to center
5
frequency have almost same group velocity as the velocity of
the center frequency). Using the information of the sum of the
distance, we can notice that the nature of ellipse is applied to
this problem. The equation of ellipse is
2
x
2
+
y = 1 (13)
2 2
a b
where the values of ‘a’ and ‘b’ are determined by
l
a =
2
(14)
2 2
b = l − d
4 4
According to the definition of an ellipse, the summation of the
distance of every point on the ellipse from the two focal points
is constant. If the transducers describe the two foci, the ellipse
describes the solutions, the location of damage. But one pair of
transducer is not sufficient to locate the damages since there are
so many points on the ellipse. In order to identify the exact
location of the damage from the infinite solutions provided by
one ellipse, signals from transducer pairs at different position
need to be considered, that is to use more transducer pairs. By
using more pairs, more ellipses are drawn, and then, the exact
location (the intersection) can be determined as shown in Fig.
12. To perform this method, at least three transducers are
needed. It should be noted that a limitation of this method
happens in the case [9]:
a) When the damage lay along or near the edge of the
square grid
b) When the damage lay along the diagonals of the
square grid
More details about the limitations are found in [9].
We need to notice that this ellipse method that utilizes the
geometric nature of ellipse is powerful to be used as damage
detection method only when introducing the information of
time of flight not the information of signal attenuation. Signals
attenuation information is possible to be used. However, to use
the information, the distance between transducers has to be as
short as possible since as the distance gets longer, more
attenuation occurs, consequently very weak received signal is
acquired. As mentioned earlier, weak signal makes the
difference between undamaged structure’s signal and damaged
structure’s signal small. Therefore, using signal attenuation
information in this ellipse method limits the distance between
transducers. The limitation contradicts to the one of
advantageous characteristic of Lamb waves that Lamb wave
propagate long distance. Also ellipse method can be used to
determine the size of damage and orientation [9]. Compared to

the use of ellipse as a location method, deciding the size and
orientation of the damage is unrealistic because so many
transducers are needed or transducers should have the ability to
move by themselves.
B. Transducer linear array method
For narrow width-plate, mostly used damage detection test
configuration is the linear array of transducers as shown in Fig.
11. If ellipse method is used in narrow width-plate, the results
from the method are not appropriate for damage detection
because there will be many reflections not merely from
structural damage but also from boundaries. In fact, the
reflection from boundaries is useless information and had better
be avoided for clear signal received by sensors. Therefore,
transducer array bonded on one edge is favorable for narrow
plates. In addition to the actuator/sensor array, one thing
important must be considered. As mentioned just before, for
easier and faster signal processing, we need to eliminate the
reflected waves from the surface of a plate. To do that,
actuators which are excited in longitudinal direction, not radial
direction, are placed on the surface of the plate.
For the detailed explanation for this method, the test set-up
and the results from the paper [10] are reviewed and will be
discussed.
Fig. 13 shows the response of undamaged composite plate
when the actuators were excited with a 15-KHz sinusoidal
pulse of 5.5 cycles modulated by Hanning window. The
response history shows the input pulse followed by another
large wavelet, which is the first reflection from the opposite end
of plate. The time difference between the excited signal from
the actuator and reflected from the opposite end corresponds to
the propagation distance of the wave, which is twice the length
of the plate. The second and third reflection are also identified
using longer signal acquisition time, suggesting a propagation
range over 2 m. However, the response signals shown in Fig. 13
are limited to capture the first reflection. It also can be observed
that the shape of the wave changes as it propagates along the
plate due to dispersive nature of the Lamb wave mode [10].
The same test was performed after damage had been induced,
thus monitoring the specimen response at different size of
damages. In comparison to Fig. 13(a), Fig. 13(b)-(d) show a
new reflection signal with small amplitude. It can be observed
that the amplitude of the first reflection from the opposite
boundary is reduced due to the presence of the damage [10].
And it also can be observed that as the damage size gets bigger,
the reflection signal from the damage gets higher, thus making
estimation of damage size possible. The location of the damage
is easily estimated by looking back to the equation (12) in
chapter V. If the group velocity, Cg, is known from the
dispersion curve at a driving frequency and plate thickness
product and the time of flight of the reflected wave from the
damage, damage location is identified. Here, you might have a
question; will the reflected signals from the damage be always
measurable if there is damage? The answer is no. Actually
6
reflected signal might not be caught according to the number of
transducer. The example [6] shows that according to the
number of transducer, signals by defect would be detected or
not. [6]. The paper [6] does not show how many transducers are
needed to cause a measurable effect on the wave propagation
by the presence of damage with other plate dimension than that
of the plate in the paper. In the future work, for cost reduction
to detect structural damages with use of Lamb waves, optimal
number (the least number) of transducer will be required to
detect damages in structure. Some characteristics of this
transducer positioning (linear array of transducers) are
presented here:
a) When this type of linear arrangement of transducers
rather than grid arrangement is used in narrow width
plate, the cost can be reduced.
b) Useless information of reflected wave from the surface
of a plate can be eliminated by exciting Lamb waves in
only longitudinal mode.
c) Optimal transducer number is supposed to be found
out according to a certain dimension of plates.
Finally, one problem should be suggested here about the
reflection from the arbitrary shaped damage. The problem
arises when the edges of damage are not normal to mid-plane of
a plate. Actually many experiments were performed by
inducing the damage of which edges is normal to mid-plane of
a plate. Even though Lamb waves propagate along longitudinal
direction, in the case of edges of damages not normal to the
surface of a plate, the reflected waves from the damage do not
come back to the sensors directly since incident wave angle
should be same as reflected wave angle with regard to the edge
of damage as depicted in Fig. 15. Therefore, time of flight
information can not be applied to locate the damage because the
path of reflected wave from the edge of arbitrary shaped
damage is evidently different from the path from the edge
which is normal to mid-plane, thus not being able to use the
equation (12) to get the damage distance from the one end of
the plate. This paragraph is my very personal opinion without
any experiments and documentary evidences. So in my future
work, if there is a difference, I want to identify the difference
between when damage edges are normal to plate’s mid-plane
and when those are not normal to the mid-pane.
VII. LAMB WAVE MODE CONVERSION
When the edges of damages are not perpendicular to
mid-plane, using TOF as elementary information to detect
structural defect might be not proper since the reflected wave
path from damage to sensor is not direct. As an alternative
information, Lamb wave mode conversion can be utilized.
Mode conversions occurred in forms of phased velocity shift
and frequency shift due to reflection from structural
 7

discontinuity such as defect and plate’s free boundaries. Some

papers [] showed the possibility of damage detection by using
Lamb waves. In addition, by analyzing the characteristics of
mode conversion, it may be possible to size defects with Lamb
waves. However, it should be noted that using mode conversion
for structural damage detection is much more complex than
using TOF and signal attenuation.

VIII. CONCLUSION

This paper has explored the overall procedures of damage

detection using Lamb wave propagation.
Firstly, characteristics of the damage detection method based
on Lamb waves as embedded nondestructive evaluation
method were investigated. And then, it shows how to derive
phase and group velocity dispersion curves with material
properties, Poisson, density, plate thickness and modulus. It
was shown that these dispersion curves provide frequency
limitation to generate fundamental Lamb wave modes, A0 and
S0, in a plate with a material by keeping driving frequency
below cut-off frequencies of A1 and S1. For the purpose of
avoiding performing complex signal processing, a pure Lamb
wave mode was selected by noticing that A0 mode is suitable
for the most common composite structural damage,
delamination and S0 mode is for steel structural defect, fatigue
crack.
Next, to achieve cost reduction and clearer signal,
optimization of Lamb wave test-up was considered. The
parameters for optimization which are transducers’
dimension/geometry, excitation pulse amplitude, wave length
ratio to the smallest critical damage size and material properties
are explained in somewhat detail.
Finally, some damage detection methods, ellipse method and
the method with use of linear arrangement of transducers, are
reviewed and discussed. Ellipse method used the nature of
ellipse and TOF as the basic information. The method is
powerful to locate damages. However, it is not proper for
damage orientating and sizing since dense actuator/sensor
arrangement is required. Linear arrangement of transducer is
used in narrow width plate, and Lamb wave is generated only in
the direction x to prevent reflection wave signals which are
useless information for damage location. And one problem was
suggested when the edges of damages are not perpendicular to
mid-plane of plates. Due to the wave characteristic that incident
angle and reflection angle is same, TOF information might be
not proper for damage detection in the case of arbitrary damage
shape. And the author suggested that this consideration is
needed to be identified by some experiments if there will be
different results between rectangular shape damage sand
arbitrary shape damages.
 8

REFERENCES
1) I.A. Viktorov, Rayleigh and Lamb Waves-Physical
Theory and Applications (Plenum, York, 1967)
2) Karl F. Graff, Wave motion in elastic solids (Dover, )
3) Seth S. Kessler, S. Mark Spearing and Constantinos
Soutis, Damage detection in Composite material using
Lamb wave methods
4) Alleyne D N and Cawley P 1992 The interaction of
Lamb waves with defect IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelctr.
Freq. Control 39 381-97
5) Roh Y S and Chang F-K 1999 Built in diagnostics for
identifying an anomaly in plates using wave scattering
PhD Dissertation Department of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Stanford University
6) K. Diamanti, J. M. Hodgkinson and C. Soutis
In-serviece Health Monitoring of Composite Structures
Using Lamb waves
7) Sebastien Grondel, Christophe Paget, Christophe
Delebarre and Jamal Assaad Design of optimal
configuration for Generating A0 Lamb mode in a
composite plate using piezoceramic tranducers
8) Ajay Raghavan and Carlos E. S. Cesnik Modelling of
piezoelectric-based Lamb wave generation and sensing
for structural health monitoring
9) P S Tua,S T Quek and Q Wang Detection of cracks in
plates using piezo-actuated Lamb waves
10) Sergio H. Diaz Valdes and Costas Soutis Real-time
nondestructive evaluation of fiber composite laminates
using low-frequency Lamb waves
11) Hoon Sohn, Gyuhae Park, Jeannette R Wait, Nethan P
Limback Wavelet-based active sensing for delamination
detection in composite structures
12) Jeong-Beom Ihn and Hu-Kuo Chang Detection and
monitoring of hiddenfatigue crack growth using a built-in
piezoelectric sensor/actuator network: I. Diagnostics
13) B C Lee and W J Staszewski Modelling of Lamb
waves for damage detection in metallic structures: part I.
Wave propagation
14) Ultrasonic detection of embedded and surface
defects in thin plates using Lamb waves M.J. Conry, L. J.
Crane, and Michael Gilchrist Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng.
4763, 180
15) Dynamic tuning of Lamb waves using an array
transducer Shi-Chang Wooh and Yijun Shi AIP conf. proc.
509, 1017 (2000)
9
 Figure 1. Lamb waves in a plate (side view)

Figure 2. Upper figure is Anti-symmetric mode shape in the plate, lower figure is
symmetric mode shape in transverse direction (side view)
Figure 3 Phase velocity dispersion curves (Sebastien grondel, 2002)

Figure 4. Group velocity dispersion curves (Sebastien grondel, 2002)

Figure 5

Figure 6
 (a)

(b)

Figure 7. (a) Typical damage in composite, (b) in steel sturcutres

Figure 8. Two transducers on the top and at the bottom of a plate to generate a pure
Lamb wave mode

Figure 9.
 (a)

(b)

Figure 10. The response of the damaged composite plate (b) where excitation is
produced by four linearly arrayed transducers at a distance (a) (K.Diamanti 2003)
Figure 11. Upper figure is linear array of transducers, lower one is grid arrangement of
transducers
 (a)

(b)

Figure 12. (a) A pair of transducers in focal point of ellipse (b) Elliptical loci of possible
crack position with 3 pairs of transducers (P S Tua, S T Quek and Q Wang 2004)
Figure 13. Response due to various size damages with linear array of transducers (a) no
defect (b) defect area=22 (c) 47 (d) 220 (Sergio H Diaz Valdes 2002)
 (a)

(b)

Figure 14. Wave motions (a) when the damage’s edge direction is normal to mid-plane
(b) when the direction is not normal to mid-plane, dot line is incident wave