Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Detection and monitoring of delamination in composite laminates using T

ultrasonic guided wave
⁎
Guoqi Zhao, Ben Wang, Tao Wang, Wenfeng Hao , Ying Luo
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In is work, the delamination of composite double cantilever beams (DCBs) was detected and monitored using
Composite laminates ultrasonic guided wave. The composite DCBs were prepared, and the experimental platform for damage de-
Double cantilever beam tection based on ultrasonic guided wave was built up. The damage response signal was obtained from the
Delamination composite DCBs by piezoelectric sensor (PZT). The signal was processed by Hilbert transform (HT), Fourier
Ultrasonic guided wave
transform (FFT) and wavelet transform (CWT). The effective linear guided wave parameters and nonlinear
guided wave parameters are extracted to characterize the delamination length. The experimental results show
that the occurrence time and duration of high-order harmonics are related to the length of delamination. High-
order harmonics are found in the response signal, which is due to the non-linear contact between the guided
wave and the closed microcracks in the delamination region. It verifies that the main source of harmonics in the
laminated composite structure is the non-linear acoustic contact.

1. Introduction
Delamination is one of the most common damage types in laminated
composite materials [1–3]. Under cyclic loading, the delamination will
extend along a certain direction, and ultimately lead to the failure of the
material. It is very important to study and develop damage detection
and structural health monitoring techniques to evaluate the stability
and safety of composite structures because the evolution process of
delamination cannot be accurately captured visually [4–6].
At present, the known damage detection and assessment technolo-
gies mainly include passive detection technology and active detection
technology [7]. Active detection technology needs to excite the struc-
ture externally, and then measure the response of the structure under
the excitation [8]. The non-destructive testing technology based on
ultrasound has been widely used in recent years because of its strong
controllability, which can control the type of excitation signal, energy,
layout and size of excitation devices [9–11]. Among many ultrasonic
testing methods, guided wave-based active detection technology has
developed rapidly, and has become one of the most active and potential
methods in the field of non-destructive testing.
Guided wave refers to the wave generated by the existence of di-
electric boundary, which acts on the boundary by reflection and re-
fraction in the waveguide structure, and at the same time, the mode
conversion between shear wave and longitudinal wave occurs [12–14].
The guided wave in the structure has long propagation distance, large
detection area, and can detect defects in any part, so the detection ef-
ficiency is very high. Combined with advanced guided wave excitation
sensing technology, guided wave detection technology can realize real-
time health detection of structures. Moreover, ultrasonic guided wave
testing is divided into linear technology and nonlinear technology,
which are determined by the scales of defects in composite structures
[15–17]. By comparing the difference of reflection, attention and wave
velocity, the linear guided wave technique is suitable for detecting
macroscopic damage such as cracking, debonding, and delamination.
Based on the contact acoustic nonlinear (CAN), the nonlinear guided
wave technique is applied to diagnose micro-scale damage, such as
closed micro-cracks, which cannot be accurately captured visually.
There are many works have been reported about delamination de-
tection using guided waves [18–21]. Shoja et al. [1] conducted nu-
merical simulations on delamination detection in composite laminates
using low frequency guided waves. Leckey et al. [22] conducted si-
mulation of guided-wave ultrasound propagation in composite laminate
using Benchmark comparisons of numerical codes and experiment.
Panda et al. [23] reported rapid guided wave inspection of complex
stiffened composite structural components using non-contact air-cou-
pled ultrasound. Zhang et al. [24] conducted an integrated numerical
model for investigating guided waves in impact-damaged composite
laminates. Wang et al. [25] monitored delamination onset and growth

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: haowenfeng2007@163.com (W. Hao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2019.111161
Received 26 March 2019; Received in revised form 29 May 2019; Accepted 18 June 2019
Available online 19 June 2019
0263-8223/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
G. Zhao, et al.
during mode I and mode II interlaminar fracture tests using guided
waves. Sohn et al. [26] detected delamination in composites through
guided wave field image processing. Gao et al. [27] conducted efficient
detection of delamination in multilayered structures using ultrasonic
guided wave EMATs. Leckey et al. [28] conducted three-dimensional
simulation and experiment on damage detection of anisotropic and
quasi-isotropic aerospace composites using guided waves. Pupyrev
et al. [29] studied the propagation of guided acoustic waves at the
intersection of interfaces and surfaces. Soleimanpour et al. [30] studied
locating delaminations in laminated composite beams using nonlinear
guided waves.
Based on the above research, some progress has been made in the
field of ultrasonic guided wave based composite delamination damage
detection technology. However, linear guided wave technology is
mainly used to detect macro-scale damage, and there are few studies on
micro-scale closed microcrack detection. At the same time, most of the
studies use numerical simulation results to characterize the size and
type of damage, which to some extent lacks credibility. So far, almost
all of the studies have focused on structures with single-scale damage,
and few have focused on the detection of composite materials with
multi-scale damage. Therefore, there is still a lot of research space in
the field of delamination damage detection of composite materials.
In this paper, ultrasonic guided wave technique was used to detect
composite structures with multi-scale damage. The damage response
signal was obtained from the structure by PZT. The signal was pro-
cessed by Hilbert transform (HT), Fourier transform (FFT) and wavelet
transform (CWT). The effective linear guided wave parameters and
nonlinear guided wave parameters are extracted to characterize the
damage.
2. Experimental details
As shown in Fig. 1, the double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens
were used in the experiments, which were cut form CF/EP composite
laminate plate made of unidirectional carbon fabrics and modified
epoxy, and fabricated using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding
(VARTM). Three DCBs (marked as No. 1, No. 2, No. 3) with a length of
334 mm, a width of 24 mm and a thickness of 4 mm were tested. The
non-viscous polyimide film with a length of 63 mm, a width of 24 mm
and a thickness of 50 µm was used to pre-damage the middle layer at
the end of the beam. The rigid strip with holes at the end of the beam
plays the role of connecting the loading device in the tensile test. There
are two reasons for using DCB as a test sample. Firstly, the delamination
can be well controlled; secondly, after repeated loading, the new de-
lamination region will rebound after unloading, and the microcracks in
the corresponding region will close, thus forming closed microcracks,
while the old delamination region will not close. At this time, DCB
contains both macro-scale through-delamination damage and micro-
scale closed microcrack damage.
As shown in Fig. 2, a non-destructive testing experimental platform
Fig. 1. DCB Specimen.
2
Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161
based on ultrasonic guided wave technology was built up. The platform
includes: Agilent 33220A function/arbitrary waveform generator, di-
rectly using digital synthesis (DDS) technology to establish stable and
accurate output signals, which can generate high purity and fidelity
waveforms; Krohn-Hite 7602 M broadband power amplifier to amplify
the corresponding signals; Agilent DS07054A analog four-channel os-
cilloscope to collect response signals. In the experiments, P5 rectan-
gular piezoelectric sensor (PZT) with length of 25 mm, width of 5 mm
and thickness of 1 mm was selected. The PZT sensor has strong ex-
citation along length direction and weak excitation in width direction.
A PZT sensor was arranged far away from the damage as the excitation
source, and another piezoelectric sensor was arranged on the reverse
side near the damage as the receiving source. Through electronic uni-
versal testing machine system, the end of DCB was tensioned, and the
crack was extended in layers along the longitudinal direction. The
loading speed is 3 mm/min, which was tensioned five times. After
loading, the crack extension length was recorded as cl by the amount of
markers made in advance on the specimen. At the end of each tension,
the specimens were tested by using the ultrasonic guided wave ex-
perimental platform.
The excitation of Lamb wave can be divided into narrowband signal
excitation and broadband signal excitation. Narrow-band excitation has
narrow bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain, and can
obtain signals with fewer modes. Broad-band excitation can excite
signals with wider bandwidth, which can simultaneously excite mul-
tiple modes of Lamb wave signals for various types of damage.
However, if the frequency bandwidth of the signal is too wide, the
phenomenon of frequency dispersion is more significant, and even
higher-order modes will appear, which will affect the interpretation of
the signal. Considering comprehensively, in this paper, five-period si-
nusoidal modulation narrowband signal was used as the excitation
signal, and its expression is as follows:
2πf0 t ⎞
⎡ N ⎤
q (t ) = Amp ⎢H (t ) − H ⎜⎛t − ⎟⎞ ⎥ × ⎛1 − cos
⎜ ⎟sin 2πf0 t
⎝ f0 ⎠⎦ ⎝ N ⎠ (1)
⎣
where Amp is the amplitude of excitation, H(t) is Heaviside function, N is
the number of peaks for sin modulated signals (N = 5), and f0 is the
central frequency of the signal (f0 = 30 kHz).
In this paper five-period sinusoidal modulation narrowband signal
was used as the excitation signal, which is shown in Fig. 3. Five-period
sinusoidal wave with 30 KHz as the center frequency was selected as the
excitation signal.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Delamination lengths of the DCBs
The delamination lengths of the three beams stretched on the uni-
versal testing machine system are shown in Table 1. Although it is
impossible to accurately guarantee that the delamination extension
length of different specimens is the same when tensioning in the same
order, the errors are all within 3 mm. At the same time, the purpose of
this study is to explore the feasibility of guided wave detection for
composite structures with different delamination lengths, so it is only
necessary to ensure that a single beam is delaminated along a given
direction. The load-time curves of the DCBs are presented in Fig. 4. At
the initial stage of loading, the force increases linearly with time, and
the velocity is 3 mm/min. With the increase of the opening of the
specimen, the angle between the upper and lower single cantilever
beam and the loading direction increases gradually, resulting in a
slower rise of the force. When the force begins to decline, a new dela-
mination region is appeared.
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

Fig. 2. Experimental setups.

3.2. Time domain signal analysis Table 1

The delamination lengths of the DCBs.
In order to better analyze the propagation characteristics of guided No. 1 Tensioning order 1 2 3 4 5
waves in DCBs with delamination spread, the received response signals Delamination length cl (mm) 75 82 90 103 113
are normalized and analyzed in time domain, which were shown in No. 2 Tensioning order 1 2 3 4 5
Fig. 5. Through the analysis of time domain signal, we can see the Delamination length cl (mm) 77 83 90 105 116
No. 3 Tensioning order 1 2 3 4 5
general variation trend of response signal, but it cannot be accurately
Delamination length cl (mm) 76 85 92 104 114
characterized by the characteristic parameters of guided wave. So
Hilbert transform method is used to transform one-dimensional con-
tinuous signal into two-dimensional complex plane signal, and then x ̂(t )
make further analysis. The specific formulas of Hilbert transformation θ (t ) = arctan
X (t ) (6)
are as follows:
Fig. 6 shows the envelope of the response signal after Hilbert
1 +∞ x (τ )
H [x (t )] = x ̂(t ) =
π
∫−∞ t−τ
dτ
(2)
transform.
In order to accurately characterize this trend, Hilbert transform is
Its inverse transformation is used to extract the envelope of the signal, and three parameters of the
signal are extracted from the envelope. The first parameter is
−1 +∞ x ̂(τ )
x (t ) = H− [(x ̂(t ))] =
π
∫−∞ t−τ
dτ
(3) ACi = Amax ,0 − Amax , i (7)

x (t ) and x ̂(t ) form a complex conjugate pair whose analytic signal is where Amax,0 is the maximum value of the normalization excitation
signal envelope, Amax,i is the maximum value of normalized A0 mode
z (t ) = X (t ) + jx ̂(t ) = a (t ) e jθ (t ) (4) direct wave envelope in ith response signal.
where x (t ) is any continuous transient signal; x ̂(t ) is a complex signal The second one is
after Hilbert transform; a (t ) is an instantaneous amplitude; and θ (t ) is a (Vj − V0)
phase. VCj =
V0 (8)
The formulas for calculating instantaneous amplitude and phase are
as follows: where V0 is the group velocity of A0 mode direct wave before tension, Vj
1 is the group velocity of A0 mode direct wave after jth tension.
a (t ) = [x 2 (t ) + x 2̂ (t )] 2 (5) The third parameter is

(a) Time domain (b) Frequency domain

Fig. 3. The exciting signal.

3
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

100
63mm——75mm
75mm——82mm
90 82mm——90mm
90mm——103mm
80 103mm——113mm

70

60
F(N)
50

40

30

20

10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time(s)

(a) The load-time curves (No.1)

100
63mm——77mm
77mm——83mm
90
83mm——90mm
90mm——105mm
80 105mm——116mm

70

60
F(N)

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time(s)

(b) The load-time curves (No.2)

100
63mm——76mm
76mm——85mm
90
85mm——92mm
92mm——104mm
80 104mm——114mm

70

60
F(N)

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time(s)

(c) The load-time curves (No.3)

Fig. 4. The load-time curves of the DCBs.

n ∑ ye, k yr , k − ∑ ye, k ∑ yr , k response signal of DCBs in a fixed time-domain interval after kth ten-
CCk =
2 sion, and CCk is the correlation coefficients of the two signals.
[n ∑ ye2, k − 2 2
(∑ ye, k ) ][n ∑ yr , k − (∑ yr , k ) ] (9) As shown in Fig. 7, the direct wave of A0 mode in the first four
response signals of No. 1 DCB, the whole response signals of No. 2 DCB
where {ye,1,ye,2,ye,3…,ye,n} is the response signal of DCBs in a fixed
and the first two response signals of No. 3 DCB are more pure. However,
time-domain interval before tension, {yr,1,yr,2,yr,3…,yr,n} is the

4
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

(a) The received response signals (No. 1)

(b) The received response signals (No. 2)

(c) The received response signals (No. 3)

Fig. 5. The received response signals.

when cl = 104 mm, cl = 114 mm, cl = 85 mm, cl = 92 mm, shown in Fig. 8. Ramadas [31] reported that S0 modes may occur when
cl = 104 mm and cl = 114 mm, two wave packets with similar ampli- A0 modes in Lamb waves interact with symmetrical stratification, and
tudes appear in the response signals of beam 1, beam 3 and beam 3, as this transition phenomenon is confined to the sublayer. After the

5
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

(a) No. 1

(b) No. 2

(c) No. 3
Fig. 6. The envelope of response signals.

interaction between the newly generated S0 mode and the layers, the
new A0 mode will be converted, which can be propagated in the main
layer and the sub-layer. After analysis, it is determined that the time lag
is A0 mode direct wave. The wave packet appearing in front of A0 mode
direct wave is generated by mode conversion when S0 mode passes
through the damage area in the response signal. Through mode I
interlaminar fracture test, the crack distribution in three DCB crack
zones may be different. In addition, the S0 mode energy is very small in
Lamb waves with a central frequency of 30 KHz, which may lead to the
phenomenon that S0 mode is converted to A0 mode in response signals
of DCB 1 and DCB 3 beams, but not in DCB 2. For DCB 1 and DCB 3 with
mode conversion, the second wave packet was selected to calculate the

6
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

(a) No. 1 (b) No.3

Fig. 7. Response signal without modal conversion.

(a) No. 1 (b) No.3

Fig. 8. Response signal with modal conversion.

guided wave characteristic parameters mentioned above.
Fig. 9 is the excitation signal and the response signal of DCB No. 1
with delamination size of 63 mm. Taking Fig. 9 as an example, the
calculation process of ACi and VCj is illustrated. Because the crack
distribution in the delaminated region of each DCB may be different,
the maximum amplitude of the response signal after Hilbert transform
was calculated after normalization, and only the variation trend of the
response signal with delamination propagation is observed. When the
distance between the exciter and the receiver is known, the velocity of
A0 mode direct wave in the response signal is calculated by the time-of-
flight method (ToF).
The calculation results of ACi are shown in Fig. 10. In the case of
delamination expansion, ACi increases continuously, which indicates
that the amplitude of A0 mode direct wave in the response signal is
decreasing continuously. This is because when guided wave propagates
in waveguide structure, it will refract and scatter when it encounters
damage. Only part of guided wave can continue to propagate through
damage, resulting in the attenuation of energy carried by guided wave.
The more damage, the more serious the attenuation phenomenon. In
addition, with the continuous generation of new delamination areas,
the old delamination areas will form penetrating damage, which will
cause the thickness of DCB to be reduced by half, and the energy will
also be attenuated when the guided wave is transmitted from the whole
area to the penetrating damage area. By observing the variation curve
of ACi with the delamination expansion, it can be found that the at-
tenuation of guided wave will decrease when the delamination extends

Fig. 9. Excitation signal and response signal of DCB with delamination length of 63 mm.

7
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

Relative magniyude chaange

1

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sampling points
(a) DCB No.1
1
Relative magniyude chaange

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sampling points
(b) DCB No. 2
1
Relative magniyude chaange

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sampling points
(c) DCB No. 3
Fig. 10. The variation of direct wave amplitude with delamination expansion.

to a certain extent.
The distance between the excitation source and the receiving source
on three DCBs is known and constant. After the time domain signal is
analyzed by Hilbert transform, the time difference (ToF) between the
excitation signal wave packet and the A0 mode direct wave packet is
calculated, and then the group velocity of the wave packet is calculated.
The calculation results are shown in Fig. 11. With the expansion of DCB
layers, VCj basically decreases, which indicates that the velocity of A0
mode direct wave packet is gradually decreasing, which is caused by
the change of waveguide structure.
In signal systems, correlation is an important method for describing
signal characteristics in time domain. When the correlation coefficient
is 0, the similarity is the worst, i.e. uncorrelated. When the correlation
coefficient is 1, it shows that the similarity between the two signals is

8
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

10 No. 1
No. 2
0 No. 3

-10

Velocity change [%]

-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sampling points
Fig. 11. The variation of direct wave group velocity with delamination expansion.

No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
Correlation coeI¿cient

1.5
1

-1.5

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5

Samling points
Fig. 12. The curve of waveform correlation coefficient with delamination expansion.

very good, which is linear correlation. Waveform similarity includes
two parameters: velocity (phase delay) and amplitude (energy at-
tenuation). In this paper, the comparison window is selected from 110
sampling points to 650 sampling points, which contains 550 sampling
points. The calculation results are shown in Fig. 12. As the delamination
damage of DCB expands, the correlation coefficient between response
signals decreases first and fluctuates in the middle and late stages. After
analysis, the reasons are as follows: when the delamination extend to a
certain extent, the signal energy decays seriously and tends to stabilize;
therefore, in this case, the main parameter affecting the waveform si-
milarity is the time delay, so there will be fluctuations, and this change
just verifies that the damage has been expanding.
From the above results of signal information processed in time-do-
main, it is seen obviously that three linear guided wave parameters, ACi
(amplitude attenuation coefficient), VCj (velocity variation coefficient)
and CCk (waveform similarity coefficient), are related to the degree of
delamination, which characterized effectively the damage growing and
extension in DCB specimens. With the extending of delamination, the
direct wave amplitude and average propagation velocity are increasing.
In addition, the waveform difference between the response signal and
the initial signal is obvious during the prophase expansion of delami-
nation damage. However, when the delamination is extended to a
certain extent, the trend of correlation coefficient is fluctuated, which is
triggered by the serious energy attenuation of the response signal.
3.3. Frequency domain signal analysis
In non-linear acoustics, when a single-frequency guide wave con-
tacts with a closed microcrack nonlinearly, the frequency of the re-
sponse signal will change, and harmonics will be generated in addition
to the fundamental component. The frequency of harmonics is usually
an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, the third harmonic is
called the wave whose fundamental frequency is three times, and the
fifth harmonic is called the wave whose fundamental frequency is five
times, and so on. The specimens used in this study are DCB, which will
rebound after unloading, and the microcracks in the new delamination
area will close, thus forming closed microcracks, while the old dela-
mination area will not close. Therefore, the DCB specimens in the ex-
periment contain micro-scale closed microcrack damage, so there must
be harmonic components in the response signal.
Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is a commonly used method of fre-
quency domain signal analysis. The frequency domain information of
the excitation signal is obtained by Fourier transform (FFT). The for-
mula of FFT transformation is as follows:
∞
F(w) = ∫−∞ f (t ) ∗ e−iwtdt (10)
where f(t) is any continuous transient signal; F (w) is the signal fre-
quency domain information after fast Fourier transform (FFT).
Fig. 13 shows the frequency spectrum of the response signal after
FFT when the delamination length of DCB No. 1 is 82 mm. It is seen

9
G. Zhao, et al. Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161

Fig. 13. Frequency-domain signal for the first DCB delamination size is 82 mm.

Fig. 14. Frequency-domain signals of the No. 1 DCB.

apparently from the Fig. 13 that besides the fundamental component,
there are two fundamental frequencies of 60 KHz and three funda-
mental frequencies of 90 KHz, which indicates that the closed micro-
crack exists in DCB specimens. When the crack surface contacts, the
dynamic pressure between the crack surfaces will produce additional
waves of about twice the original wave frequency or higher, which
appear in the response signal in the form of second harmonic and third
harmonic.
In order to further reveal the existence of higher harmonics, Fast
Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to all the response signals of No. 1

10
G. Zhao, et al.
(a) c l =63mm
(b) c l =75mm
(c) c l =82mm
Fig. 15. Time-frequency signals of the No. 1 DCB.
DCB specimens. The results are shown in Fig. 14. It can be found from
the figure that there are high-order harmonics in the response signal of
DCB No. 1, of which the second harmonics and the third harmonics are
the main ones. With the extension of delamination, the amplitude of
harmonics also changes correspondingly.
3.4. Time frequency analysis
The processed frequency domain data only reveals the existence of
high-order harmonics. In order to better locate the time when harmo-
nics occur, wavelet transform (WT) is used to analyze the signal in time
and frequency.
Wavelet transform (WT) is originally used in the field of signal
analysis and processing. It inherits and develops the idea of short-time
Fourier transform localization, and overcomes the shortcomings of
window size not changing with frequency. It can provide a ‘time-fre-
quency’ window that changes with frequency. It is an ideal tool for
signal time-frequency analysis and processing. Its main feature is that it
can fully highlight the characteristics of some aspects of the problem by
transformation, can localize the time (space) frequency analysis, and
gradually refine the signal (function) by scaling translation operation.
Finally, it achieves time subdivision at high frequency and frequency
subdivision at low frequency, and can automatically adapt to the
11
Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161
(d) c l =90mm
(e) c l =104mm
(f) c l =114mm
requirements of time-frequency signal analysis, thus focusing on arbi-
trary details of the signal. Unlike Fourier transform, the basis function is
an infinite triangular function, while the wavelet function is a finite-
length attenuation wavelet basis function, which achieves the fre-
quency information in the time information of the location signal. The
wavelet transform of the transient signal f(t) can be defined by the
following formula:
1
∫−∞ f (t ) ∗ ψ ⎛⎝ t −a τ ⎞⎠ dt
∞
WT(a, τ ) =
a (11)
where a denotes scale, τ denotes translation. Scale a controls the ex-
pansion of the wavelet function corresponding to frequency (inverse
ratio), τ controls the translation corresponding time of the wavelet
( )
t−τ
function, andψ a denotes mother wavelet function. The efficiency
and accuracy of wavelet transform are related to the selection of mother
wavelet. There are many kinds of mother wavelet, such as Gabor,
Gaussian, Haar, Daubechies, bi-orthogonal, Morlet, Mexican Hat, etc.
In this study, complex Morlet wavelet is selected as continuous
wavelet transform (CWT) for time domain signals in order to achieve
higher time resolution. The results are shown in Fig. 15. From the time-
frequency diagram, it is seen clearly that the arrival time of harmonics
is advanced with the extension of the layered length of DCB, which
indicates that the initial time of slapping between the sub-layered
G. Zhao, et al.
surfaces in the layered region will affect the flight time of the non-linear
wave packet. At the same time, with the expansion of the layered re-
gion, the duration of harmonics is on the rise. It can also be verified by
Fig. 15 that contact acoustic nonlinear (CAN) is the main source of
harmonics in laminated composite structures; the other parts in the
figure may be caused by friction at rough surfaces or layered interfaces
and external noise.
The results of the processed response signals (in time-domain, fre-
quency-domain and time-frequency domain) demonstrate that there are
multi-scale damage in the DCB specimens used in experimental study,
namely through-thickness delamination and closed-microcrack, which
conformed to the analysis basis in Section 1. On the one hand, the
through-thickness delamination is detected by using the linear guided
wave technique, where the length of delamination is related to ampli-
tude, velocity and waveform, shown in Figs. 10–12. On the other hand,
the closed-microcrack damage is characterized according to the arrival
time and duration of higher harmonic guided wave, shown in Figs. 14
and 15.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, the carbon fiber/epoxy (CF/EP) composite laminates
with multi-scale damage were tested by using ultrasonic guided wave
through building an experimental platform. Applying the Hilbert
transform (HT) to response signal captured by PZT, three linear guided
wave parameters were defined to characterize qualitatively the dela-
mination growing. It is concluded that propagation wave velocity, en-
ergy and waveform are related to the delamination extension. The fast
Fourier transform (FFT) and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) were
used to extract the arrival time and duration of higher harmonic guided
wave, which verified the closed micro-cracks existed in DCB specimens.
Moreover, this study also proved that the higher harmonic guided wave
is generated due to contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN). Overall the
experimental results show that the proposed method is able to accu-
rately detect and characterize the delamination growing and micro-
scale damage. Utilizing efficient analysis methods and powerful hard-
ware facilities, the sensitive structural health monitoring system can be
established for critical parts of large facilities. In addition, further works
are also required to measure the damage size and position in the
composites structures during its damage growing and extension.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.
11520101001, 11872025, 11672279), Jiangsu Province Science
Foundation for Youths (Grant No. BK20170518, BK20180878), the
Natural Science Foundation of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu
Province (18KJB560004), and the Foundation for Advanced Talent of
Jiangsu University (Grant No. 16JDG027).
References
[1] Shoja S, Berbyuk V, Boström A. Delamination detection in composite laminates
using low frequency guided waves: numerical simulations. Compos. Struct.
2018;203:826–34.
[2] Hao W, Ge D, Ma Y, Yao X, Shi Y. Experimental investigation on deformation and
strength of carbon/epoxy laminated curved beams. Polymer Test. 2012;31:520–6.
12
Composite Structures 225 (2019) 111161
[3] Hao W, Yuan Y, Zhu J, Chen L. Effect of impact damage on the curved beam in-
terlaminar strength of carbon/epoxy laminates. J. Adhesion Sci. Technol.
2016;30:1189–200.
[4] Munian RK, Mahapatra DR, Gopalakrishnan S. Lamb wave interaction with com-
posite delamination. Compos. Struct. 2018;206:484–98.
[5] Schaal C, Samajder H, Baid H, Mal A. Rayleigh to Lamb wave conversion at a de-
lamination-like crack. J. Sound Vibr. 2015;353:150–63.
[6] He S, Ng C. A probabilistic approach for quantitative identification of multiple
delaminations in laminated composite beams using guided waves. Eng. Struct.
2016;127:602–14.
[7] Staszewski WJ, Mahzan S, Traynor R. Health monitoring of aerospace composite
structures – active and passive approach. Compos. Sci. Technol. 2009;69:1678–85.
[8] Giurgiutiu V, Bao J, Zhao W. Piezoelectric wafer active sensor embedded ultrasonics
in beams and plates. Exp. Mech. 2003;43:428–49.
[9] Xu C, Yang Z, Zhai Z, Qiao B, Tian S, Chen XA. Weighted sparse reconstruction-
based ultrasonic guided wave anomaly imaging method for composite laminates.
Compos. Struct. 2019;209:233–41.
[10] Kexel C, Maetz T, Mälzer M, Moll J. Digital communication across orthotropic
composite components using guided waves. Compos. Struct. 2019;209:481–9.
[11] Eremin A, Golub M, Glushkov E, Glushkova N. Identification of delamination based
on the Lamb wave scattering resonance frequencies. NDT E Int. 2019.
[12] Sriramadasu RC, Banerjee S, Lu Y. Detection and assessment of pitting corrosion in
rebars using scattering of ultrasonic guided waves. NDT E Int. 2019;101:53–61.
[13] Raišutis R, Kažys R, Žukauskas E, Mažeika L, Vladišauskas A. Application of ul-
trasonic guided waves for non-destructive testing of defective CFRP rods with
multiple delaminations. NDT E Int. 2010;43:416–24.
[14] Eremin A, Glushkov E, Glushkova N, Lammering R. Guided wave time-reversal
imaging of macroscopic localized inhomogeneities in anisotropic composites.
Struct. Health Monit. 2019:841766828.
[15] Geng D, Liu Y, Shao Z, Lu Z, Cai J, Li X, et al. Delamination formation, evaluation
and suppression during drilling of composite laminates: a review. Compos. Struct.
2019;216:168–86.
[16] Mei H, Giurgiutiu V. Guided wave excitation and propagation in damped composite
plates. Struct. Health Monitor. 2018:842831485.
[17] Mesnil O, Leckey CA, Ruzzene M. Instantaneous and local wavenumber estimations
for damage quantification in composites. Struct. Health Monitor. 2014;14:193–204.
[18] Panda RS, Rajagopal P, Balasubramaniam K. Characterization of delamination-type
damages in composite laminates using guided wave visualization and air-coupled
ultrasound. Struct. Health Monitor. 2016;16:142–52.
[19] Ricci F, Monaco E, Maio L, Boffa ND, Mal AK. Guided waves in a stiffened composite
laminate with a delamination. Struct. Health Monitor. 2016;15:351–8.
[20] Soleimanpour R, Ng C, Wang CH. Higher harmonic generation of guided waves at
delaminations in laminated composite beams. Struct. Health Monitor.
2016;16:400–17.
[21] Diamanti K, Hodgkinson JM, Soutis C. Detection of low-velocity impact damage in
composite plates using lamb waves. Struct. Health Monitor. 2004;3:33–41.
[22] Leckey CAC, Wheeler KR, Hafiychuk VN, Hafiychuk H, Timuçin DA. Simulation of
guided-wave ultrasound propagation in composite laminates: benchmark compar-
isons of numerical codes and experiment. Ultrasonics 2018;84:187–200.
[23] Panda RS, Rajagopal P, Balasubramaniam K. Rapid guided wave inspection of
complex stiffened composite structural components using non-contact air-coupled
ultrasound. Compos. Struct. 2018;206:247–60.
[24] Zhang B, Sun XC, Eaton MJ, Marks R, Clarke A, Featherston CA, et al. An integrated
numerical model for investigating guided waves in impact-damaged composite la-
minates. Compos. Struct. 2017;176:945–60.
[25] Wang D, Ye L, Tang Y, Lu Y. Monitoring of delamination onset and growth during
Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture tests using guided waves. Compos. Sci.
Technol. 2012;72:145–51.
[26] Sohn H, Dutta D, Yang JY, Park HJ, DeSimio M, Olson S, et al. Delamination de-
tection in composites through guided wave field image processing. Compos. Sci.
Technol. 2011;71:1250–6.
[27] Gao H, Ali S, Lopez B. Efficient detection of delamination in multilayered structures
using ultrasonic guided wave EMATs. NDT E Int. 2010;43:316–22.
[28] Leckey CAC, Rogge MD, Raymond Parker F. Guided waves in anisotropic and quasi-
isotropic aerospace composites: three-dimensional simulation and experiment.
Ultrasonics 2014;54:385–94.
[29] Pupyrev PD, Nedospasov IA, Mayer AP. Guided acoustic waves at the intersection of
interfaces and surfaces. Ultrasonics 2019.
[30] Soleimanpour R, Ng C. Locating delaminations in laminated composite beams using
nonlinear guided waves. Eng. Struct. 2017;131:207–19.
[31] Ramadas C, Balasubramaniam K, Joshi M, Krishnamurthy CV. Interaction of the
primary anti-symmetric Lamb mode (Ao) with symmetric delaminations: numerical
and experimental studies. Smart Mater. Struct. 2009;18:85011.