Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

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

Efficient zigzag theory-based spectral element model for guided waves in

composite structures containing delaminations
Mayank Jain, Santosh Kapuria ∗
Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Lamb wave-based structural health monitoring offers excellent potential for real-time delamination detection
Efficient layerwise theory in laminated structures. It necessitates fast and accurate numerical simulation of guided wave interaction
Time-domain spectral element with delaminations. Towards this objective, we present an efficient layerwise zigzag theory (ZIGT) based
Delamination
time-domain spectral element for wave propagation analysis of composite beam- and panel-type structures
Lamb wave
(strips) containing delamination at arbitrary locations. The ZIGT delivers accuracy like layerwise theories
Composite
Structural health monitoring
by allowing slope discontinuities in the in-plane displacement field at layer interfaces while maintaining
computational efficiency like equivalent single-layer (ESL) theories, making it ideal for such analyses. The
high-order elemental nodes at Lobatto points have only four displacement variables, irrespective of the number
of layers in the laminate. Delamination is modelled using the region approach, adapting the recently proposed
hybrid point-least squares continuity method to satisfy the nonlinear displacement field continuity at the
delamination fronts. The model’s efficacy is examined vis-à-vis elasticity-based elements, ESL theory-based
elements, and the ZIGT-based standard finite element for free vibration and guided wave propagation responses
of composite strips featuring multiple delaminations. The present model shows superior overall efficiency,
accuracy, and convergence. An application of the model is also explored for identifying delamination locations
from Lamb wave velocity fields.

1. Introduction
Fibre-reinforced composite materials have several superior at-
tributes over metals, such as high specific strength, stiffness, fatigue,
and corrosion resistance [1], which make them suitable for various
high-performance structures including biomedical devices, aircraft,
spacecraft, automobiles, marine vehicles, turbine blades, and sports
products. However, their highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous nature
makes them prone to a rather serious mode of invisible sub-surface
damage namely delamination at ply interfaces, which can arise during
manufacturing or service under thermomechanical loading condi-
tions [2,3]. In addition to reducing stiffness and strength, delamination
may undergo an unstable growth under in-plane compressive loading,
leading to catastrophic failure of the structure. Thus, early detection
of delaminations through periodic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) or
even their real-time monitoring using onboard transducers, known as
structural health monitoring (SHM), becomes imperative for ensuring
the integrity and reliability of composite structures.
Lamb waves are ultrasonic-guided elastic waves propagating be-
tween the two bounding surfaces of thin-walled structures whose thick-
ness is much less than the wavelength of the wave modes [4,5]. Due
to their several favourable attributes such as high group velocity, the
ability to travel long distances with little attenuation and detect both
surface and internal defects, being highly sensitive, and being easy to
actuate and sense, they have been used for both off-line NDE [6–
12] and online SHM [13–15] for identifying the sub-surface defects in
laminated structures by exploiting their interactions with the defects.
Understanding and predicting features of guided waves interacting
with delaminations require accurate simulation tools which must be
computationally efficient and fast for deployment for the design of
effective NDE/SHM systems. Damage detection is essentially an inverse
problem requiring many forward simulations when model-assisted or
physics-informed data-driven strategies are employed. The computing
efficiency becomes even more important in such cases apart from
contributing to the sustainable computational mechanics by energy
saving [16]. Although there has been notable progress on modelling
delamination in laminated structures [17–19], the development of fast
and accurate prediction tools for wave propagation in delaminated
structures still needs much attention. The present paper is aimed to
cover this critical gap in the literature.
The elasticity theory-based three-dimensional (3D) solid [20] and
2D plane stress/strain [7] finite elements offer arguably the most
amenable choice for modelling delaminations in composite structures

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kapuria@am.iitd.ac.in (S. Kapuria).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2023.117585
Received 17 May 2023; Received in revised form 26 August 2023; Accepted 28 September 2023
Available online 4 October 2023
0263-8223/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
by way of introducing two sets of coincident nodes at the delaminated
interfaces, which are either unconnected or connected by contact ele-
ments [21]. Thus, they have been widely used to study the effect of de-
lamination on the free vibration response [20,22,23] and guided wave
propagation [7,21,24–31] in laminated structures. Another favoured
approach for modelling delaminated structures is based on the layer-
wise theories (LWTs) in which additional degrees of freedom (DOFs) in
terms of jump discontinuities are introduced in the displacement field
for modelling delaminations [32–36]. Both the continuity-based and
LWT-based models, though accurate, are inherently computationally
inefficient with the number of DOFs increasing with the number of
laminas, which makes them unsuitable, particularly for transient wave
propagation problems in multi-layered beam, plate, and shell-type
structures.
On the other end of the spectrum lie the equivalent single layer
(ESL) laminate theory-based models which assume a global variation
of the displacement field across the laminate thickness and are compu-
tationally efficient with DOFs independent of the lamina count [37].
Models based on the ESL theories usually adopt the so-called region
approach to incorporate delaminations [38,39]. In this approach, the
delaminated region is divided into sub-laminates separated by the
delaminations, which are modelled independently using the ESL theory.
The sub-laminates are connected to the integral regions by applying
the appropriate continuity conditions at the junctions between the
delaminated and adjacent integral regions, called the delamination
fronts.
Several FE models based on the region approach have been devel-
oped for free vibration and dynamic stability analyses of delaminated
composite beams and plates using the ESL theories such as the first-
order shear deformation theory (FSDT [40–44] and the refined third-
order shear deformable theory (TOT) [45–49]. In these studies, the
continuity at the delamination front is enforced by equating the in-
plane and rotational displacements of a sub-laminate to those of intact
laminate at the former’s reference plane (mid-plane). It is called here
the point-continuity (PC) model. For a linear variation of the in-plane
displacements, as in the FSDT, this condition automatically satisfies the
continuity of displacements at all points on the delamination fronts
in the thickness direction. However, in the case of the higher order
theories such as the TOT, wherein the in-plane displacement variation
is nonlinear, the model would fail to maintain the displacement con-
tinuity through the sub-laminate thickness at the delamination front.
For such theories, a new continuity displacement model developed
by Kapuria and Ahmed [50] satisfies the displacement continuity at
the delamination front by equating the in-plane displacements at the
sub-laminate’s mid-plane and minimizing the deviations between the
in-plane displacement fields of the adjacent intact laminate and the
sub-laminate with respect to the rotation variables in the delaminated
region using the least squares method [51]. Since this method combines
the point-continuity and least squares methods, they termed it the
hybrid point-least square continuity (HPLSC) model. The developed
model is generic for an arbitrary number of delaminations occurring
at arbitrary interfaces of the laminate. As the ESL theories do not
account for the slope discontinuities generally seen in the displacement
field’s variation at the interfaces of laminas of different material prop-
erties [52,53], they are susceptible to yielding erroneous predictions,
particularly for ultrasonic guided wave propagation problems featuring
very short wavelengths (which act as the effective span of the structure
resulting in a rather low span-to-thickness ratio).
The efficient layerwise theories (ELTs) were pioneered by Ambart-
sumyan [54] and Rath and Das [55] to combine the high accuracy of
the LWTs and the high computational efficiency of the ELTs. Thus, the
in-plane displacements are initially considered to follow a layerwise
variation, allowing for the slope discontinuities at layer interfaces like
the LWTs, but the number of primary variables is made independent of
the number of layers like the ESL theories, with the help of interfacial
continuity conditions of displacements and transverse shear stresses
2
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
and shear traction-free conditions at the top and bottom surfaces. These
theories are also called zigzag theories (ZIGTs). Comparisons with 3D
elasticity theory-based solutions have established that the ZIGTs have
indeed attained their objective of high accuracy at less computational
cost for the static, dynamic, and buckling response of composite and
sandwich beams [56,57], plates [58–62], and shells [63]. There have
been early attempts to model delaminations using the ZIGTs, by incor-
porating additional displacement jumps variables in the displacement
field approximation for static and dynamic analyses of delaminated
composite plates [64–66]. However, this approach would satisfy nei-
ther the displacement field continuity at the delamination fronts nor the
shear traction-free conditions at the delaminated interfaces. Further,
delaminations have been modelled using the ZIGTs by introducing
weak interfaces [67] or additional weak layers at the delaminated
interfaces [68–70]. In these cases too, the continuity of the displace-
ment field would not be satisfied at the delamination fronts. Kapuria
and Ahmed [71,72] have been able to satisfy both these conditions in
FE models for free vibration analysis of composite plates and shells
containing multiple delaminations by employing the region approach
in the context of ZIGTs for the first time. The HPLSC method [50]
was extended for the ZIGT to ensure displacement field continuity at
delamination fronts.
The conventional FEM employed in the aforementioned studies,
however, is known to suffer from several disadvantages such as nu-
merical dispersion, dissipation errors, and slow convergence rate [73],
which make it computationally inefficient and even unreliable for high-
frequency wave propagation problems. It has spurred efforts towards
developing various non-conventional strategies to improve accuracy
and convergence. Details of such methods can be seen in Refs. . [74–
76], although only a few of them have been implemented or are indeed
implementable for wave propagation analysis of laminated structures
featuring delaminations [77–79].
One of the most effective ones among the non-conventional methods
which enjoys all the generalities of the conventional FEM in solving
complex geometry problems and yet has faster convergence and higher
accuracy is the time-domain spectral element method (TDSEM). Mo-
tivated by the exceptional accuracy of spectral methods [80], Patera
developed the TDSEM in the context of fluid dynamics using higher-
order orthogonal polynomials, namely, Chebyshev polynomials [81]
and Legendre polynomials [82] as interpolation functions in the FE
formulation. It yields exponential convergence (∝ ( 1𝑝 )𝑝 ) with the inter-
polation polynomial order 𝑝, which is known as spectral convergence.
Further, these functions do not suffer from undesirable oscillations near
the element ends, known as the Runge phenomenon, encountered by
the high-order Lagrange functions used in the standard p-FEM [83].
Two-dimensional [84,85] and 3D [86,87] elasticity-based TDSEs
have been employed to study the interaction of guided waves with
delaminations in laminated structures. Rekatsinas et al. [88] have
extended their third-order LWT-based spectral plate element [89] by
introducing displacement jump DOFs for modelling delamination in
multi-layered plates. Among the ESL theories, only FSDT-based TDSEs
have been developed in conjunction with the region approach for
simulation of guided waves in composite structures in the presence of
delaminations [77,90–92].
The authors [93,94] have recently developed TDSEs based on the
TOT for wave propagation analysis of isotropic and laminated compos-
ite strips, but no study has been reported so far on using the TOT-based
SEs for wave propagation analysis of delaminated structures. So far as
ELTs are concerned, a spectral strip element has been developed very
recently based on the third-order ZIGT [95], which has shown excel-
lent accuracy, convergence rate, and efficiency in predicting guided
wave propagation response of single- and multi-material laminated
panels [96]. Despite these overwhelming advantages, no TDSE model
based on an ELT has been developed to date for wave propagation
analysis of delaminated multi-layered structures to the best of the
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
authors’ knowledge. This gap applies to both displacement jump and
region approaches of modelling delaminations.
In this article, we present for the first time an TDSE model based
on an ELT for wave propagation analysis of laminated beam- and
panel-type structures (strips) containing multiple delaminations. The
formulation employs the C1 -continuous spectral element based on the
third-order ZIGT recently developed by the authors [96] to model the
intact laminate and delaminated sub-laminates, which automatically
ensures the satisfaction of traction-free conditions at the delaminated
interfaces. The delaminations can occur at arbitrary interfacial and
longitudinal locations and are modelled using the region approach.
The high-order 𝑛-node spectral element has only four DOFs per node,
namely, in-plane displacement 𝑢0 , transverse displacement 𝑤0 , slope
d𝑤0
, and shear rotation 𝜓0 at the mid-surface of the laminate/sub-
d𝑥
laminate, irrespective of the number of layers in the respective lam-
inate. The deflection 𝑤0 is interpolated using C1 -continuous Lobatto
basis functions [97], while the C0 -continuous Lobatto basis functions
are used to interpolate 𝑢0 and 𝜓0 . The HPLSC method of Ref. [71] is
adapted for the spectral strip element to satisfy the continuity of the
nonlinear in-plane displacement field across the laminate thickness at
the delamination fronts. These conditions are imposed using a trans-
formation matrix that relates the nodal DOFs of the sub-laminate at
the delamination front to those of the intact laminate. The solution
based on the related ESL theory, TOT, is obtained as a special case
of the present model. A comprehensive numerical study has been
performed to validate and assess the TDSE model for free vibration
and guided wave propagation responses of composite strips featuring
single and multiple delaminations. The Lamb wave propagation exam-
ple is selected so as to represent actual SHM applications. To critically
examine the present results, we compare them with the previously
published results and the elasticity-based FE solution from ABAQUS.
The performance of the conventional two-node FE solution based on the
same laminate theory is also compared with the proposed SE solution.
Further, we delineate the role of the slope discontinuities in the in-
plane displacement approximation by comparing it with the TOT-based
SE solution. Finally, we use the present simulation to explore the
identification of the longitudinal as well as interfacial locations of
delaminations using Lamb wave velocity field measurements.
2. Efficient layerwise modelling of composite laminate with mul-
tiple delaminations
Consider a laminated composite strip featuring multiple delamina-
tions at arbitrary interfacial and axial locations (Fig. 1(a)). The laminas
are made of unidirectional fibre-reinforced composite materials, which
exhibit orthotropic material symmetry. The delaminations are of known
lengths which do not change during deformations. The planes normal
to a delaminated interface at the start and the end of the delamination
are called delamination fronts (Fig. 1(b)). The region approach [38,
39] is popular for modelling delaminated structures using ESL theo-
ries [40,43,45,48] and has been recently developed in the context of
the ZIGTs in Refs. [71,72]. In this approach, the plate is divided into
regions separated by the delamination fronts and delaminated inter-
faces. Thus, the regions feature either the intact laminate (regions 𝐼𝑖 in
Fig. 1(b)) or sub-laminates created by the delaminations (regions 𝐷𝑖 in
Fig. 1(b)). Each of the regions 𝐷𝑖 between two delamination fronts is
modelled independently using a separate set of finite/spectral elements
(Fig. 1(c)) to allow both the in-plane and transverse displacements to
be discontinuous across the delaminated interfaces.
The structure axes 𝑥 and 𝑧 are along the longitudinal and thickness
directions, respectively. The numbering of layers starts from the bottom
of a sub-laminate (or the intact laminate), as shown in Fig. 2. 𝑧0 denotes
the 𝑧-location of the bottom surface of the first layer (𝑘 = 1) and 𝑧𝑘 the
top surface of the 𝑘th layer (𝑘 = 1, 2, … , 𝐿) of the sub-laminate. The
layer through which the mid-surface (𝑧 = 0) passes is denoted by 𝑘0 . If
the mid-surface lies on an interface, the layer above the interface is 𝑘0 .
3
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
The angle between the principal material direction 𝑥1 of the 𝑘th layer
and the structural axis 𝑥 is denoted as 𝜃𝑘 .
In line with the majority of 1D and 2D laminate theories, the
transverse normal stress 𝜎𝑧 is assumed to be negligible. The present
study considers the strip either in the plane stress state (𝜎𝑦 = 𝜏𝑦𝑧 = 𝜏𝑥𝑦 =
0) for a beam of small width or the plane strain state (𝜀𝑦 = 𝛾𝑦𝑧 = 𝛾𝑥𝑦 = 0)
for a panel of infinite width along 𝑦-direction. There is no restriction on
the lamina fibre orientations for the beams of small width. However,
for the panel of infinite width, the current work is restricted to cross-
ply laminates only, although the formulation can be easily extended to
angle-ply panels by considering the displacement 𝑢𝑦 (𝑥, 𝑧) along the 𝑦-
direction. As a result of these assumptions, the 3D constitutive relations
of a lamina lead to two nonzero independent stress components, the
normal axial stress 𝜎𝑥 and the transverse shear stress 𝜏𝑧𝑥 , being related
to the normal axial strain 𝜀𝑥 and transverse shear strain 𝛾𝑧𝑥 as
𝜎𝑥 = 𝑄̂ 11 𝜀𝑥 , 𝜏𝑧𝑥 = 𝑄̂ 55 𝛾𝑧𝑥 (1)
through the reduced stiffness coefficients 𝑄̂ 11 and 𝑄̂ 55 in the structural
coordinate system (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧). The expressions of these coefficients for
plane stress and plane strain strips are available in [96] in terms of
Young’s moduli 𝑌𝑖 , shear moduli 𝐺𝑖𝑗 , and Poisson’s ratio 𝜈𝑖𝑗 for the
lamina.
The displacement fields in the intact laminate and each of the sub-
laminates are approximated using the efficient ZIGT [56], which will
be briefly recalled below. It needs to ensure the continuity of the
displacement fields in the intact laminate and sub-laminates across the
delamination front, which is non-trivial for the nonlinear and layerwise
distribution of the in-plane displacement and will be discussed later.
2.1. Zigzag laminate theory
Consider a sub-laminate (or an intact laminate) of 𝐿 number of
layers of total thickness ℎ. The layers are perfectly bonded at the in-
terfaces. For the purpose of describing the displacement field variations
across the sub-laminate’s thickness, the mid-surface of the sub-laminate
is considered as the reference (𝑧 = 0) plane. The zigzag theory assumes
the in-plane displacement 𝑢 to follow a global third-order variation in
𝑧 superimposed with a linear variation in each layer and the trans-
verse displacement 𝑤 independent of 𝑧, i.e., uniform throughout the
laminate thickness. For both plane stress and plane strain conditions,
the displacement field does not depend on 𝑦-direction. Thus, it can be
expressed for any layer 𝑘 as a function of 𝑥, 𝑧, and 𝑡 as
𝑢(𝑥, 𝑧, 𝑡) = 𝑢𝑘 (𝑥, 𝑡) − 𝑧𝑤0,𝑥 + 𝑧𝜓𝑘 (𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝑧2 𝜉(𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝑧3 𝜂(𝑥, 𝑡),
𝑤(𝑥, 𝑧, 𝑡) = 𝑤0 (𝑥, 𝑡) (2)
where 𝑤0 denotes the deflection at the mid-plane (𝑧 = 0) and □,𝑥
represents 𝜕□𝜕𝑥
. In Eq. (2), the layerwise linear variation for layer 𝑘 is
represented by the axial displacement 𝑢𝑘 and shear rotation 𝜓𝑘 , whereas
the global variation of third order in 𝑧 by 𝜉 and 𝜂, the second and
third-order coefficients of 𝑧, respectively.
For 𝐿 number of layers in the laminated strip, 𝑢𝑘 (𝑢1 , 𝑢2 , …, 𝑢𝐿 )
and 𝜓𝑘 (𝜓1 , 𝜓2 , …, 𝜓𝐿 ) yield 2𝐿 number of unknown displacement
variables. On adding the global field variables 𝜉, 𝜂, and 𝑤0 , the total
number of unknown variables is 2𝐿 + 3, which increases with 𝐿 like in
the LWTs and would result in high computation efforts for many layers.
Therefore, to make the number of primary field variables independent
of 𝐿 and thereby the model computationally efficient, the following
conditions are imposed: (i) shear traction-free condition (𝜏𝑧𝑥 = 0) at
the bottom and top surfaces of the sub-laminate, yielding 2 equations
and (ii) continuity of 𝑢 and 𝜏𝑧𝑥 at each of the (𝐿 − 1) interfaces in the
sub-laminate, yielding (2𝐿 − 2) conditions. These 2𝐿 conditions help us
to eliminate 2𝐿 unknowns and express 𝑢 in Eq. (2) in terms of only three
primary displacement variables, namely, axial displacement 𝑢0 , slope
𝑤0,𝑥 , and shear rotation 𝜓0 at the reference plane of the sub-laminate
as
𝑢(𝑥, 𝑧, 𝑡) = 𝑢0 (𝑥, 𝑡) − 𝑧𝑤0,𝑥 (𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝑅𝑘 (𝑧)𝜓0 (𝑥, 𝑡) (3)
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

Fig. 1. (a) Configuration of a laminated strip containing multiple delaminations at arbitrary interfacial and longitudinal locations, showing structural axes 𝑥 and 𝑧. (b) Regions
containing intact laminates 𝐼𝑖 and sub-laminates 𝐷𝑖 separated by delaminated interfaces around a delamination zone. (c) Spectral element model of these regions having a separate
set of elements for each sub-laminate with common nodes at delamination fronts.

material in layer 𝑘 and 𝛿() denotes the first-order variational operator.

Fig. 2. Geometry details and reference plane of a sub-laminate.
The symbol ⟨…⟩ denotes the integration over the sub-laminate thick-
∑𝐿 𝑧−
𝑘
ness consisting of 𝐿 layers, ⟨…⟩ = (…) 𝑑𝑧 and □̄ represents
∫𝑧+
𝑘=1 𝑘−1
specified values of □ at the transverse boundaries of the system.
We now substitute the 𝑧-variations of displacement and strains,
associate the functions of 𝑧 with the stress components 𝜎𝑥 and 𝜏𝑧𝑥
and material density 𝜌𝑘 , and apply the integration ⟨…⟩ over the sub-
laminate thickness. This process leads to expressing the elemental
contribution to the integral in Eq. (4) in terms of the generalized
displacement vector 𝒖̄ and strain vector 𝜺̄ as

𝑇𝑒 = [𝛿 𝐮̄ T 𝐈̃𝐮̄̈ + 𝛿 𝜺̄ T 𝐃̄
̄ 𝜺 − 𝛿 𝐮̄ T 𝐟𝑢 ]𝑏(𝑥) 𝑑𝑥 (5)
∫𝑥𝑒
where 𝑅𝑘 (𝑧)
is a cubic function of 𝑧 for layer 𝑘, which depends on
where
the laminate lay-up and material properties of all layers. Its explicit { }T { }T
expression can be seen in [96]. 𝐮̄ = 𝑢0 −𝑤0,𝑥 𝜓0 𝑤0 , 𝜺̄ = 𝑢0,𝑥 −𝑤0,𝑥𝑥 𝜓0,𝑥 𝜓0 ,
Note that the above conditions ensure that at the delaminated { }T
interfaces, the shear tractions vanish identically, which is not satisfied 𝐟𝑢 = 0 0 0 𝑞𝑧 ,
by the ELT models that employ Heavyside’s function to account for the (6)
displacement discontinuity at delaminated interfaces [64–66].
𝐈̃ and 𝐃
̄ correspond to the inertia and stiffness coefficients matrices,
2.2. Weak formulation via Hamilton’s variational principle whose expressions are available in [96].

The development of the spectral element would require a weak
formulation of the governing equations of motion of the structure based
on the above ZIGT approximations. Hamilton’s variational principle is
employed to directly obtain the Ritz–Galerkin type weak formulation
for the strip structure based on the ZIGT. A normal traction 𝑞𝑧 (𝑥) per
unit area is considered to act on the bottom or top surface of the sub-
laminate/intact laminate. Since 𝑤 is uniform over the thickness and the
strip is flat, the 𝑧-location of 𝑞𝑧 would not matter. The strip’s width is
𝑏(𝑥) which can be a function of 𝑥 for the beam and equals to unity for
infinite panels. Considering that the 𝑧-variations of the field variables
are known as per the ZIGT and there is no 𝑦-dependence, the volume
integral in Hamilton’s principle can be reduced to an integral in 𝑥 as
follows:
𝑛𝑒
∑
[𝑏(𝑥)⟨𝜌𝑘 (𝑥)𝑢𝛿𝑢
̈ + 𝜌𝑘 (𝑥)𝑤𝛿𝑤
̈ + 𝜎𝑥 𝛿𝜀𝑥 + 𝜏𝑧𝑥 𝛿𝛾𝑧𝑥 ⟩ + 𝑏(𝑥)𝑞𝑧 (𝑥)𝛿𝑤] d𝑥
∫𝑥𝑒
𝑒=1
| Accordingly, the field variables 𝑢0 , 𝜓0 , and 𝑤0 are interpolated with
−𝑏(𝑥)⟨𝜎̄ 𝑥 𝛿𝑢 + 𝜏̄𝑧𝑥 𝛿𝑤⟩| = 0, ∀ 𝛿𝑢0 , 𝛿𝑤 (4)
|𝑥
In the above expression, we have considered the strip structure to be
an assembly of 𝑛𝑒 elements of domain 𝑥𝑒 . 𝜌𝑘 (𝑥) is the mass density of
3. High-order spectral strip element
The weak form of governing equations in Eq. (4) is solved by
discretizing the structural domain using the spectral (finite) element
method [81]. SEs commonly employ Lagrange interpolations defined
on non-uniformly spaced nodal grids [83]. These shape functions, how-
ever, are only C0 -continuous, which would not suffice while dealing
with many beam, plate, and shell elements such as the ones based
on the classical lamination theory (CLT), TOT, and the present ZIGT.
The highest orders of derivatives of displacement variables appear-
ing in Eq. (5) suggest that the present ZIGT requires C0 -continuous
interpolations N for 𝑢0 and 𝜓0 and C1 -continuous interpolations 𝐍 ̄
for 𝑤0 and 𝜃 (= 𝑤0,𝑥 ). The authors [96] have developed a spectral
element (Fig. 3) for laminated strips based on the ZIGT satisfying these
continuity requirements. The same interpolations are employed here in
developing the spectral element for the sub-laminates.
element nodes located at the Gauss–Lobatto–Legendre (GLL) points as
[ ]{ }T
𝑢0 = 𝑁 1 𝑁 2 … 𝑁 𝑛 𝑢01 𝑢02 … 𝑢0𝑛 = 𝐍𝒖𝒆𝟎 ,

4
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

Fig. 3. Spectral strip element based on the ZIGT, showing 𝑛 nodes and four DOFs per node: Distribution of nodes is unequal with GLL points spacing.

[ ]{ }T
̄ 𝑒, 𝐊
̄ 𝑒 , and 𝐏̄ 𝑒 are
𝜓0 = 𝑁1 𝑁2 … 𝑁𝑛 𝜓01 𝜓02 … 𝜓0𝑛 = 𝐍𝝍 𝒆𝟎 (7) The integrals in Eq. (13) for element matrices 𝐌
[ ]{ }T computed using the Lobatto quadrature described in [96]. For exact
𝑤0 = 𝑁̄ 1 𝑁̄ 2 … 𝑁̄ 2𝑛 𝑤01 𝜃1 𝑤02 𝜃2 … 𝑤0𝑛 𝜃𝑛 integration of these integrals, we consider (2𝑛 − 1), (2𝑛 + 1), and (𝑛 + 1)
̄ 𝒆
= 𝐍𝒘 integration points for 𝐊 ̄ 𝑒, 𝐌
̄ 𝑒 , and 𝐏̄ 𝑒 , respectively. In this case, of
𝟎
̄ 𝐈,
course, 𝐃, ̃ 𝑏, and 𝑞𝑧 are assumed to be uniform over the element.
Both C0 -continuous and C1 -continuous spectral interpolations have
These numbers will change if the above parameters vary along the
been shown to eliminate Runge oscillations near the element ends and
element.
are guaranteed to have a maximum value of unity [97].
The element displacement vector of element 𝑒 is introduced as
4. Satisfying continuity at delamination fronts
⎧ ⎫
⎪ 𝒖𝒆𝟎 ⎪
⎪ ⎪
𝐔∗ 𝑒 = ⎨𝒘𝒆 ⎬ , (8) Various models employed in the literature for modelling the inter-
⎪ 𝟎⎪ action of delaminated interfaces can be classified into (i) free-mode
⎪𝝍 𝒆 ⎪ model [98], which considers no interaction between the adjacent in-
⎩ 𝟎⎭
terfaces during the deformation allowing both opening and interpene-
and 𝐮̄ and 𝜺̄ in Eq. (6) are expressed in terms of 𝐔∗ 𝑒 using the
tration, (ii) constrained mode model [39] which considers the trans-
interpolations defined in Eq. (7) as
verse displacements of the interfaces as equal, thereby allowing no
⎧ ⎫ ⎡𝐍 𝟎 𝟎⎤ ⎧ 𝒆 ⎫ opening, and (iii) the contact element model [21], which disallows
⎪ 𝑢0 ⎪ ⎢ ⎪ 𝒖𝟎 ⎪
− 𝑙2𝑒 d𝐍 𝟎 ⎥⎥ ⎪ ⎪
̄ interpenetration. In the current study, the free-mode model is adopted.
⎪−𝑤0,𝑥 ⎪ ⎢ 𝟎 ̂ ∗ 𝐔∗ 𝑒 ,
𝒖̄ = ⎨ ⎬= d𝜉 ⎨𝒘𝒆 ⎬ ⇒ 𝒖̄ = 𝐍 Although, this model allows physically inadmissible interpenetration,
⎪ 𝜓0 ⎪ ⎢⎢ 𝟎 𝟎 𝐍⎥ ⎪ 𝟎 ⎪
⎥ it has shown excellent accuracy in predicting natural frequencies of
⎪ 𝑤0 ⎪ ⎣ 𝟎 𝐍̄ 𝟎⎦ ⎪ 𝒆⎪
⎩ ⎭ ⎩𝝍 𝟎 ⎭ both opening and non-opening modes of composite beams compared
⎫ ⎡ 𝑙𝑒 𝟎 ⎤⎧ ⎫
2 d𝐍 to the experimental results [51]. Further, this assumption will not
⎧ 𝟎
⎪ 𝑢0,𝑥 ⎪ ⎢⎢ d𝜉 2
⎥ ⎪ 𝒖𝒆 ⎪
⎥ 𝟎
alter the main conclusions drawn from the ensuing numerical study.
⎪−𝑤 ⎪ 𝟎 − 4 d 𝐍̄ 𝟎 ⎥ ⎪ 𝒆⎪
𝜺̄ = ⎨ 0,𝑥𝑥 ⎬ = ⎢ 𝑙𝑒 2 d𝜉 2 ̂ ∗ 𝐔∗ 𝑒 , (9) The intact regions (denoted by 𝐼) of the laminate are modelled along
⎢ ⎨𝒘 ⎬ ⇒ 𝜺̄ = 𝐁
⎪ 𝜓0,𝑥 ⎪ 2 d𝐍 ⎥ ⎪ 𝟎 ⎪ its mid-surface with strip elements having the entire laminate as the
𝟎 𝟎
⎪ 𝜓0 ⎪ ⎢⎢ 𝑙𝑒 d𝜉 ⎥ ⎪ 𝒆 ⎪ cross-section. Thus, the nodal DOFs of these elements correspond to
𝐍 ⎥⎦ ⎩ 𝟎 ⎭
⎩ ⎭ ⎣ 𝟎 𝝍
𝟎
the mid-surface of the intact laminate. On the other hand, in the
2𝑥 − (𝑥𝑒1 + 𝑥𝑒𝑛 ) delaminated regions (denoted by 𝐷), the sub-laminates generated by
where 𝜉 is the local natural coordinate given by 𝜉 = . the delaminated interfaces are modelled with independent sets of strip
𝑙
Having obtained 𝐍 ̂ ∗ matrices, the DOFs in 𝐔∗ 𝑒 is reordered to
̂ ∗ and 𝐁 elements having the respective sub-laminates as the cross sections (see
obtain the redefined element displacement vector 𝐔𝑒 as Figs. 1(b) and (c)). The nodal DOFs of these elements correspond to the
[ ]T mid-surface of the respective sub-laminate. Since the 𝑧-coordinates with
𝐔𝑒 = 𝑢01 𝑤01 𝑤0,𝑥1 𝜓 01 𝑢 02 𝑤02 𝑤0,𝑥2 𝜓 02 … 𝑢0𝑛 𝑤0𝑛 𝑤0,𝑥𝑛 𝜓 0𝑛 respect to the reference surface of the intact laminate are not modelled
(10) explicitly, all the meshes for the sub-laminates in a delaminated region
physically lie on the same plane (although they are shown separately in
Accordingly 𝐍̂ ∗ and 𝐁
̂ ∗ matrices are rearranged to obtain 𝐍
̂ and 𝐁
̂
Fig. 1(c) for illustration purpose). At the delamination entry and exit
matrices such that fronts, the stress resultants in the intact laminate and the connected
̂ 𝑒,
𝒖̄ = 𝐍𝐔 ̂ 𝑒,
𝜺̄ = 𝐁𝐔 (11) sub-laminates must satisfy the equilibrium conditions. This condition
is satisfied by making the adjoining elements in the intact and delami-
Substituting 𝐮̄ and 𝜺̄ from Eq. (11) into Eq. (5), the contribution 𝑇 𝑒 of nated zones share a common global node number at the delamination
element 𝑒 to the variational integral is obtained as front (e.g. 𝑛2 and 𝑛3 in Fig. 1(c)).
1
2 ̂ T 𝐈̃𝐍 ̂ T𝐃
̂ 𝐔̈ 𝑒 + 𝐁 ̄ 𝐁𝐔 ̂ T 𝒇 𝒖 ] 𝑏(𝑥(𝜉)) d𝜉
̂ 𝑒−𝐍 Further, the displacement field along each sub-laminate thickness
𝑇𝑒 = 𝛿𝐔𝑒T [𝐍
𝑙𝑒 ∫−1 at the delamination front must ideally match the field in the intact
̄ 𝑒 𝐔̈ 𝑒 + 𝐊̄ 𝑒 𝐔𝑒 − 𝐏̄ 𝑒 ] laminate point-wise. This can be challenging for higher-order theories
= 𝛿𝐔𝑒T [𝐌 (12)
wherein the variation of the displacement field is non-linear as in the
with present case. In the following, we discuss two models for this purpose:
𝑒 1 (1) the point continuity (PC) model, which has been used in most
̄𝑒 = 𝑙
𝐌 ̂ T (𝜉)𝐈(𝜉)
𝐍 ̃ 𝐍(𝜉)
̂ 𝑏(𝑥(𝜉)) d𝜉,
2 ∫−1 studies on delaminated beams and plates [40–43,45–48], and (2) the
𝑒 1 hybrid point-least squares continuity (HPLSC) model, a new approach
̄𝑒 = 𝑙
𝐊 ̂ T (𝜉)𝐃(𝜉)
𝐁 ̄ 𝐁(𝜉)
̂ 𝑏(𝑥(𝜉)) d𝜉, (13) developed for laminated shells recently by Kapuria and Ahmed [50,71]
2 ∫−1
1 using four-node facet shell elements based on higher-order theories.
𝑙𝑒 ̂ T (𝜉)𝒇 𝒖 𝑏(𝑥(𝜉)) d𝜉.
𝐏̄ 𝑒 = 𝐍 We present these two models for the current spectral strip element
2 ∫−1 based on the ZIGT. To develop these models, we consider two adjacent
𝐌̄ 𝑒 and 𝐊
̄ 𝑒 define the element mass and stiffness matrices, respectively, spectral strip elements at a delamination front, one in the intact region
of the strip element and 𝐏̄ 𝑒 represents the element force vector. (𝐼) and the other in the delaminated region (𝐷) for a sub-laminate.

5
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

Fig. 4. (a) A delamination front connecting an intact laminate (𝐼) and a delaminated sub-laminate (𝐷) having 𝑝 number of layers starting from 𝑏th interface of the intact laminate,
and (b) Variations of 𝑢 in laminates 𝐼 and 𝐷 at the delamination front. They should be ideally continuous at all points over sub-laminate thickness ℎ𝑑 .

The sub-laminate is made of 𝑝 layers and its thickness spans from where
the 𝑏th interface to the (𝑏 + 𝑝)th interface of the intact laminate as
⎧ 𝑢𝐷 ⎫ ⎧ 𝑢𝐷 ⎫ ⎡1
shown in Fig. 4. All variables are super- or subscripted with 𝐼 and 𝐷 to ⎪ 0𝑖 ⎪ ⎪ 0𝑖 ⎪ 0 𝜆̄ 𝜆̃⎤
⎪ 𝐷 ⎪ ⎪ 𝐷 ⎪ ⎢ ⎥
indicate their associations with the intact and delaminated segments, ⎢ ⎥
⎪𝑤 ⎪ ⎪𝑤 ⎪ 0 1 0 0⎥
respectively. 𝐔𝐷 = ⎨ 0𝑖 ⎬ , 𝐔𝐼𝑖 = ⎨ 0𝑖 ⎬ , 𝐓𝑖 = ⎢ (18)
𝑖
⎪𝑤𝐷 ⎪ ⎪𝑤𝐷 ⎪ ⎢ ⎥
⎪ 0,𝑥𝑖 ⎪ ⎪ 0,𝑥𝑖 ⎪ ⎢0 0 1 0⎥
⎪ 𝐷⎪ ⎪ 𝐷⎪ ⎢ ⎥
4.1. Point continuity method
⎩ 𝜓0 ⎭ ⎩ 𝜓0 ⎭ ⎣0 0 0 1⎦
𝑖 𝑖

It is the most widely used method to model delaminations in lam- with 𝜆̄ = −𝑧𝑐 and 𝜆̃ = 𝑅𝑘𝐼 (𝑧𝑐 ). Note that for an 𝑛-node spectral element,
inated structures. As the name suggests, it satisfies the continuity of 𝑖 will take the value of 1 or 𝑛 in general.
the in-plane displacement 𝑢𝑥 at only one point across the sub-laminate The above conditions will ensure exact point-wise satisfaction of
thickness, which is its mid-plane. At a point 𝑃 (see Fig. 4(b)) on continuity of the displacement field in the intact and delaminated
the common interface between the intact laminate and delaminated segments at the common interface for laminate theories like the CLT
sub-laminate, the in-plane displacements of the two laminates can be and the FSDT, which assume a linear variation of 𝑢 across the laminate
expressed as thickness. However, the same will not happen when through-thickness
variation of 𝑢 is non-linear as in the present theory. It may lead to large
𝑢𝐼 (𝑥, 𝑧, 𝑡) = 𝑢𝐼0 (𝑥, 𝑡) − 𝑧𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 (𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝑅𝑘𝐼 (𝑧)𝜓0𝐼 (𝑥, 𝑡) discontinuity in 𝑢 at points other than the mid-plane of the sub-laminate
𝑢𝐷 (𝑥, 𝑧′ , 𝑡) = 𝑢𝐷 (𝑥, 𝑡) − 𝑧′ 𝑤𝐷 (𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ )𝜓0𝐷 (𝑥, 𝑡) (14) causing significant errors. The issue is elegantly addressed in the HPLSC
0 0,𝑥
model discussed in the following section.
In the above expressions, 𝑧 and 𝑧′
denote, respectively, the local
thickness coordinates of the 𝐼 and 𝐷 laminates with respect to their
mid-planes. The two coordinates are, of course, related by 𝑧′ = 𝑧 − 𝑧𝑐 , 4.2. Hybrid point-least squares method
with 𝑧𝑐 = (𝑧𝑏 + 𝑧𝑏+𝑝 )∕2. At the mid-plane of the sub-laminate, 𝑧′ = 0
and 𝑧 = 𝑧𝑐 . Equating 𝑢𝐼 and 𝑢𝐷 at this point would mean 𝑢𝐼 (𝑥, 𝑧𝑐 , 𝑡) = An alternative approach to satisfying the displacement continuity
𝑢𝐷 (𝑥, 0, 𝑡), which yields using Eq. (14) at the delamination front would be by minimizing the norm of the
𝑢𝐷 = 𝑢𝐼0 − 𝑧𝑐 𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 + 𝑅𝑘𝐼 (𝑧𝑐 )𝜓0𝐼 (15) deviation (𝑢𝐼 − 𝑢𝐷 ) over the sub-laminate thickness, known as the least
0
squares method. However, it would mean that the continuity of 𝑢 is
The rotation variables 𝑤0,𝑥 and 𝜓0 of both elements at the common not satisfied exactly at any predefined point within the sub-laminate. It
node are made equal: may result in unpredictable accuracy. The HPLSC method proposed by
Kapuria and Ahmed [71] attempts to combine the advantages of the PC
𝑤𝐷
0,𝑥
= 𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 , 𝜓0𝐷 = 𝜓0𝐼 . (16) and least squares methods. It satisfies the continuity of 𝑢 exactly at the
𝑥 𝑥

Relations (15) and (16) can be expressed in terms of a transformation midplane of the delaminated sub-laminate like the PC method. But, the
matrix 𝑇𝑖 relating the nodal DOF vector 𝐔𝐷 rotation variables 𝑤𝐷 and 𝜓0𝐷 are not equated with 𝑤𝐼0 and 𝜓0𝐼 unlike
𝑖 of the 𝑖th node of the 0,𝑥 ,𝑥
element in the delaminated segment to that of the adjacent element the PC method. Instead, they are determined by minimizing the norm of
in the intact segment (𝐔𝐼𝑖 ) as the deviation between 𝑢𝐼 and 𝑢𝐷 over the common interface. The norm
𝐹 of the deviation (𝑢𝐼 − 𝑢𝐷 ) over the sub-laminate thickness spanning
𝐔𝐷 𝐼
𝑖 = 𝐓𝑖 𝐔𝑖 (17) from the 𝑏th interface to the (𝑏 + 𝑝)th interface of the intact laminate is

6
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

given by Table 1
Essential and natural boundary conditions.
∑
𝑏+𝑝 𝑧𝑘
Essential 𝑢 = 𝑢̄ 0 𝑤0 = 𝑤̄ 0 𝑤0,𝑥 = 𝑤̄ 0,𝑥 𝜓0 = 𝜓̄ 0
𝐹 = (𝑢𝐼 − 𝑢𝐷 )2 𝑑𝑧 (19)
∫𝑧𝑘−1 Natural 𝑁𝑥 = 𝑁̄ 𝑥 𝑉𝑥 = 𝑉̄𝑥 𝑀𝑥 = 𝑀 ̄𝑥 𝑃𝑥 = 𝑃̄𝑥
𝑘=𝑏+1

To minimize 𝐹 with respect to 𝑤𝐼0 and 𝜓0𝐼 , we have

,𝑥

𝜕𝐹 𝜕𝐹 spectral element 𝑒 in the delaminated region, the first or 𝑛th or both

= 0, =0 (20)
𝜕𝑤𝐷
0,𝑥
𝜕𝜓0𝐷 nodes may lie on a delamination front. For such elements, we then
introduce an element displacement vector 𝐔𝑒𝐼 as given below
Eqs. (15) and (20) constitute the continuity conditions for the HPLS
method, which yields, upon using Eq. (19), the following relations: [ ]T
𝐔𝑒𝐼 = 𝑢𝐼0 𝑤𝐼0 𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 𝜓0𝐼 𝑢𝐷
0
𝑤𝐷
0
… 𝑤𝐷
0,𝑥
𝜓0𝐷 𝑢𝐼0 𝑤𝐼0 𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 𝜓0𝐼
1 1 1 1 2 2 𝑛−1 𝑛−1 𝑛 𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
𝑢𝐷
0
− 𝑢𝐼0 − 𝜆𝑤
̄ 𝐼 − 𝜆𝜓
0,𝑥
̃ 𝐼 =0
0
(27)
𝑎1 𝑤 𝐷
0,𝑥
− 𝑎1 𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 + 𝑎2 𝜓0𝐼 − 𝑎3 𝜓0𝐷 = 0 (21)
The original element displacement vector 𝐔𝑒𝐷 of the delaminated seg-
𝑏1 𝑢𝐼0 − 𝑏1 𝑢𝐷
0
− 𝑏2 𝑤𝐼0,𝑥 + 𝑏3 𝑤𝐷
0,𝑥
+ 𝑏4 𝜓0𝐼 − 𝑏5 𝜓0𝐷 = 0 ment element can be related to 𝐔𝑒𝐼 by using Eq. (17) as
with
𝐔𝑒𝐷 = 𝐓𝑒 𝐔𝑒𝐼 (28)
ℎ3𝑑 ∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧
𝑎1 = 12
, 𝑎2 = ∫ 𝑘
𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧𝑘−1
𝑧′ 𝑅𝑘𝐼 (𝑧) 𝑑𝑧, where
∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧 ∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧
𝑎3 = ∫ 𝑘 𝑧′ 𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ ) 𝑑𝑧, 𝑏1 = ∫ 𝑘 𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ ) 𝑑𝑧, ⎡𝐓1 ⎤
𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧 𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧
𝑘−1 𝑘−1 (22) ⎢ ⎥
∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧 ∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧 ⎢
𝐈4
⎥
𝑏2 = ∫ 𝑘 𝑧𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ ) 𝑑𝑧, 𝑏3 = ∫ 𝑘 𝑧′ 𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ ) 𝑑𝑧,
𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧𝑘−1 𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧𝑘−1 ⎢ 𝐈4 ⎥
∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧 ∑𝑏+𝑝 𝑧 𝐓𝑒 = ⎢ . ⎥ (29)
𝑏4 = ∫ 𝑘
𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧𝑘−1
𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ )𝑅𝑘𝐼 (𝑧) 𝑑𝑧, 𝑏5 = ∫ 𝑘 {𝑅𝑘𝐷 (𝑧′ )}2 𝑑𝑧,
𝑘=𝑏+1 𝑧𝑘−1 ⎢ ⎥
⎢ . ⎥
where ℎ𝑑 = 𝑧𝑏+𝑝 − 𝑧𝑏 denotes the thickness of the delaminated sub- ⎢ 𝐈4 ⎥
laminate. Eq. (21) is rewritten in the matrix form and solved to express ⎢ ⎥
⎣ 𝐓𝑛 ⎦
the displacement variables of the delaminated segment in terms of
𝐈𝑛 denotes identity matrix of size 𝑛 × 𝑛. 𝐓1 and 𝐓𝑛 are obtained from
those of the intact segment as
Eqs. (18) or (26) or taken as equal to 𝐈4 depending on whether or not
⎡ 𝐷⎤ ⎡ 𝐼 ⎤ node 1 and 𝑛 lie on the delamination front. The HPLSC method will be
⎢ 𝑢0 ⎥ ⎢ 𝑢0 ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ used in the present study unless specified otherwise.
̄ ̃
𝐂 ⎢𝑤 ⎥ = 𝐂 ⎢𝑤𝐼 ⎥
𝐷 (23)
0,𝑥 0,𝑥 For these elements, 𝑇 𝑒 given by Eq. (12) can be expressed upon
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ applying Eq. (28) as
⎢ 𝜓𝐷 ⎥ ⎢ 𝜓𝐼 ⎥
⎣ 0 ⎦ ⎣ 0 ⎦
𝑇 𝑒 = 𝛿𝐔𝑒𝐷 T [𝐌
̄ 𝑒 𝐔̈ 𝑒 + 𝐊
̄ 𝑒 𝐔𝑒 − 𝐏̄ 𝑒 ]
⎡ 𝐷⎤ ⎡ 𝐼 ⎤ 𝐷 𝐷
⎢ 𝑢0 ⎥ ⎢ 𝑢0 ⎥ 𝑒T T ̄ 𝑒
= 𝛿𝐔𝐼 𝐓𝑒 [𝐌 𝐓𝑒 𝐔̈ 𝑒𝐼 + 𝐊 ̄ 𝑒 𝐓𝑒 𝐔𝑒 − 𝐏̄ 𝑒 ]
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ 𝐼
⇒ ⎢𝑤𝐷 ⎥ = 𝝀 ⎢𝑤𝐼 ⎥ (24) ⇒ 𝑇 𝑒 = 𝛿𝐔𝑒𝐼 T [𝐌𝑒 𝐔̈ 𝑒𝐼 + 𝐊𝑒 𝐔𝑒𝐼 − 𝐏𝑒 ] (30)
0 0
⎢ ,𝑥 ⎥ ⎢ ,𝑥 ⎥
⎢ 𝜓𝐷 ⎥ ⎢ 𝜓𝐼 ⎥ where
⎣ 0 ⎦ ⎣ 0 ⎦
where 𝐌𝑒 = 𝐓T𝑒 𝐌
̄ 𝑒 𝐓𝑒 , 𝐊𝑒 = 𝐓T𝑒 𝐊
̄ 𝑒 𝐓𝑒 , 𝐏𝑒 = 𝐓T𝑒 𝐏̄ 𝑒 (31)
⎡1 0 0 ⎤ ⎡1 𝜆̄ 𝜆̃ ⎤
̄ = ⎢0 By summing up the contributions 𝑇 𝑒 given by Eq. (30) from the total
𝐂 𝑎1 −𝑎3 ⎥ , ̃ = ⎢0
𝐂 𝑎1 −𝑎2 ⎥ , ̄ −1 𝐂.
𝝀=𝐂 ̃ (25)
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ 𝑛𝑒 number of spectral elements 𝑇 in Eq. (5) is obtained as
⎣ 𝑏1 −𝑏3 𝑏5 ⎦ ⎣𝑏1 −𝑏2 𝑏4 ⎦
𝑛𝑒 𝑛𝑒
∑ ∑
With the help of Eq. (24), the nodal displacement vector 𝐔𝐷
𝑖 of 𝑖th node 𝑇 = 𝑇𝑒 = 𝛿𝐔𝑒T [𝐌𝑒 𝐔̈ 𝑒 + 𝐊𝑒 𝐔𝑒 − 𝐏𝑒 ] (32)
of the sub-laminate element can be transformed into 𝐔𝐼𝑖 of the intact 𝑒=1 𝑒=1
laminate using the same relation as Eq. (17) with the transformation The summation in Eq. (32) is achieved by gathering the elements of
matrix 𝐓𝑖 given by matrices 𝐌𝑒 , 𝐊𝑒 , 𝐏𝑒 , and 𝐔𝑒 in their global counterparts 𝐌, 𝐊, 𝐏, and 𝐔.
⎡𝜆11 Since virtual displacements 𝛿𝐔 are arbitrary, for the variational integral
0 𝜆12 𝜆13 ⎤
⎢ ⎥ in Eq. (4) to vanish, the coefficient of 𝛿𝐔 must be identically zero. The
0 1 0 0 ⎥
𝐓𝑖 = ⎢ , 𝜆𝑖𝑗 ∈ 𝝀. (26) semi-discrete equation of motion of the spatially discretized system is
⎢𝜆21 0 𝜆22 𝜆23 ⎥
⎢𝜆 0 𝜆32 ⎥
𝜆33 ⎦
thus yielded as
⎣ 31
The continuity models discussed above are very generic and can 𝐌𝐔̈ + 𝐊𝐔 = 𝐏. (33)
be applied to multiple delaminations occurring at arbitrary axial and The material damping of the system is included by using the most
interfacial locations in the laminated strip-structure. widely used Rayleigh’s hypothesis, which estimates the proportional
damping matrix as 𝐂 = 𝛼1 𝐌 + 𝛼2 𝐊. 𝛼1 and 𝛼2 represent, respectively,
5. System equation of motion the mass and stiffness coefficients for damping. The global equation of
motion of the damped system is thus obtained as
For those spectral elements in the delaminated regions, which share
a common node with elements in the intact region, the assembly of the 𝐌𝐔̈ + 𝐂𝐔̇ + 𝐊𝐔 = 𝐏. (34)
element stiffness, mass, and force matrices would require that the DOFs
at the common node correspond to one reference system. The DOFs 𝐔𝐷 The variationally consistent essential and natural boundary condi-
𝑖
of such nodes 𝑖 are transformed to 𝐔𝐼𝑖 in the intact laminate reference tions can be derived based on the efficient layerwise ZIGT from the
system by using Eqs. (17) and (18) or (26) as per the chosen continuity boundary terms in Eq. (4), which are shown in Table 1.
model. The other nodes of the delaminated segment elements can retain Thus, for instance, we can express the boundary conditions for some
the DOFs in the sub-laminate reference system itself. For an 𝑛-node common supports as given in Table 2.

7
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
Table 2
Boundary conditions for some commonly used supports.
Support type Simply-supported
𝑁𝑥 = 0,
Boundary 𝑤0 = 0,
conditions 𝑀𝑥 = 0,
𝑃𝑥 = 0.
For time-history response, Eq. (34) is solved in time domain using
Newmark-𝛽 implicit time integration scheme with 𝛽 = 0.25 and 𝛾 = 0.5,
which provides unconditional stability. For free vibration response, we
have used the subspace iteration technique [99] to solve the resulting
generalized eigenvalue problem for obtaining the natural frequencies
and mode shapes of the structure.
6. Results and discussion
In this section, we first validate the proposed formulation and
the developed computer program for free vibration and Lamb wave
propagation analyses of multi-layered beams and panels containing
single and multiple delaminations. These problems are chosen from
the published literature in order to compare with them for validation.
The elasticity-based FE solutions are employed to assess the accuracy
of the SE-based delamination modelling, since such solutions do not
make any prior assumptions on the variations of the displacement field
across the laminate thickness. We also illustrate, in comparison with
continuum-based FE solutions, the relative performances of the PC and
HPLSC methods in modelling the delamination front continuity. The
next example evaluates the ZIGT-based SE’s accuracy for Lamb wave
propagation response in delaminated composite strips caused by the
actuation of a piezoelectric transducer mounted at the laminate’s top
surface. This problem represents what is encountered in real-world
SHM applications. Since the refined TOT has the same number of DOFs
as the ZIGT, we also assess their relative accuracies with respect to
the elasticity-based solutions. Next, we study the feasibility of local-
izing delamination damage in composite strips from the guided wave
propagation response.
6.1. Free vibration of composite beams with multiple delaminations
In this example, we consider a cantilever beam of size 127 mm ×
12.7 mm × 1.02 mm (length × width × thickness), made of eight-layer
graphite/epoxy (Gr/Ep-1) composite having a lay-up of [0◦ /90◦ ]2𝑆 .
The beam has three cases of single to triple delaminations located at
the mid-span as shown in Fig. 5. Table 3 lists its material properties.
This problem was analysed earlier using the FSDT-based analytical
solution [98] and the ZIGT-based FE (plate element) solution [71]. The
elasticity-based 2D FE solution is also obtained in ABAQUS utilizing
an eight-node quadrilateral plane stress element (CPS8R) to assess the
accuracy of the present solution. The continuum-based FE solution is
chosen as a benchmark for the assessment as it does not have any
pre-defined approximations on the through-thickness distributions of
displacements.
We determine the natural frequencies (𝑓𝑛 = 𝜔𝑛 ∕2𝜋) for the first ten
flexural modes, for which the present SE with the HPLSC model yielded
converged results with 3, 4, and 3 eight-node elements for regions AB,
each sub-laminate of BC, and CD for the case of 50.8 mm long delami-
nations. The corresponding numbers of elements for the three parts for
the case of 101.6 mm long delaminations are 1, 8, and 1, respectively.
The 2D FE model in ABAQUS is made of a very fine mesh of 2000 × 8
(length × thickness) elements to obtain the benchmark solution. Table 4
and 5 present these results for delaminations of 50.8 mm and 101.6 mm
in length, respectively. The present solution matches both the reference
solutions [71,98] available for the first mode very well, which validates
the proposed modelling for single and multiple delaminations. Further,
8
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
Pinned Clamped Free
𝑢0 = 0, 𝑢0 = 0, 𝑁𝑥 = 0,
𝑤0 = 0, 𝑤0 = 0, 𝑉𝑥 = 0,
𝑀𝑥 = 0 𝑤0,𝑥 = 0, 𝑀𝑥 = 0,
𝑃𝑥 = 0. 𝜓0 = 0. 𝑃𝑥 = 0.
the present results for all ten flexural modes are in excellent agreement
with the benchmark continuum-based FE solution with a maximum
error of 0.9%. It establishes the accuracy of the ZIGT SE-based model
with the hybrid continuity method for delamination fronts.
Next, the proposed SE’s accuracy is evaluated for free vibration
response of thick cantilever and simply-supported composite beams
with a span-to-thickness ratio of 𝑆 (= 𝑎∕ℎ) = 5. The width-to-span (𝑏∕𝑎)
of the beam is 0.1. It is made of a four-layer graphite/epoxy (Gr/Ep-
2, properties shown in Table 3) laminate [0◦ /90◦ ]𝑆 . All laminas are
considered to be of equal thickness. The beam contains a delamination
of the length of 10%, 25%, and 50% of its span, located at the mid-
span and the middle interface. Table 6 presents a convergence study
on the mesh size of the present SE model for the natural frequencies of
the first two flexural modes of cantilever and simply-supported beams
with a delamination size of 50% of the beam span. In the table, symbols
𝑛𝐿 , 𝑛𝐷 , and 𝑛𝑅 denote the number of eight-node SEs used to model
parts AB, each sub-laminate in BC, and CD, respectively. The results
show that a mesh of 16 eight-node SEs with 4 elements in each part
yields converged solutions. For comparison, the 3D elasticity-based FE
solution is considered, which was earlier obtained in Ref. [50] using
a twenty-node quadratic solid element (C3D20R) in ABAQUS. In this
case, a mesh of 100 × 10 × 40 elements was used. We utilize this
example also to assess the relative accuracies of the continuity models
PC and HPLSC. Table 7 compares the present SE solutions for the two
continuity models with the 3D FE solution. The comparison reveals
that the HPLSC model yields a much superior prediction of the natural
frequencies than the PC model for both cantilever and simply-supported
beams featuring delaminations. The error in the PC becomes very
large even for the fundamental frequency as the delamination length
increases, making it an undesirable choice for satisfying continuity. As
expected, the natural frequencies of the beam decrease with an increase
in delamination length.
6.2. Lamb wave propagation problem of Ramadas et al. [24]
Now, we consider the problem of guided wave propagation in a
delaminated composite strip for further validation of the present SE.
This example was analysed earlier by Ramadas et al. [24] utilizing AN-
SYS software employing an eight-node quadratic plane strain element
(PLANE183). The laminate is made of three-layer glass epoxy (Gl/Ep,
see Table 3 for its material properties) with a lay-up of [0◦ /90◦ /0◦ ]. Its
dimensions are 400 mm × 0.99 mm (length × total thickness), and the
position of the delamination is as shown in Fig. 7. The guided wave is
excited by two equal transverse forces (𝐹 (𝑡)∕2) acting at the left end
of the panel on its top and bottom surfaces, as shown in Fig. 7(a).
The excitation is a modulated tone burst pulse expressed as 𝐹 (𝑡) =
𝐹0 2𝜋(𝑡−𝑡 )
𝐻 (𝑡) sin{2𝜋𝑓 (𝑡 − 𝑡0 )}, where 𝐻𝑤 (𝑡) = 1 − cos 𝑇 0 is the Hann
2 𝑤 𝐻
window used for modulation. 𝑇𝐻 denotes the width of the window,
which depends on the number of cycles 𝑁𝐵 and frequency 𝑓 of the
pure tone burst as 𝑇𝐻 = 𝑁𝐵 ∕𝑓 . For the current example, the excitation
signal parameters are 𝐹0 = 42 kN, 𝑓 = 200 kHz, 𝑁𝐵 = 7, and 𝑡0 = 0 μs.
The signal and its transform are shown in Fig. 6, which indicates the
narrowband nature of the signal. Ramadas et al. [24] employed a mesh
of 1600 × 6 (length × thickness) PLANE183 elements in the FE model
and used Newmark-𝛽 method for time-marching with a uniform time
step 𝛥T of 50 ns in ANSYS.
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

Fig. 5. Configuration of eight-layer composite beam showing three cases of delaminations. The response is computed for two boundary conditions — cantilever and simply-supported.

Table 3
Material properties.
Material 𝑌1 𝑌2 𝑌3 𝐺23 𝐺13 𝐺12 𝜈12 𝜈13 𝜈23 𝜌
(GPa) (kg/m3 )
Gr/Ep-1 [71] 134.0 10.3 10.3 3.28 5.0 5.0 0.33 0.33 0.33 1480
Gr/Ep-2 [50] 181.0 10.3 10.3 2.87 7.17 7.17 0.28 0.28 0.33 1578
Gr/Ep-3 [100] 132.5 10.8 10.8 3.40 5.7 5.7 0.24 0.24 0.588 1600
Gl/Ep [24] 44.68 6.9 6.9 2.546 2.54 2.54 0.28 0.28 0.355 1990

Table 4
Natural frequencies (Hz) of first ten flexural modes of a cantilever composite beam ([0◦ /90◦ ]2𝑆 ) having multiple delaminations of 50.8 mm
length.
No. of del. Flexural mode Present 2D FE % error FSDT [98] Ref. [71]
1 1 80.689 80.485 0.25 80.383 80.945
2 443.53 441.11 0.55 – –
3 570.41 567.37 0.54 – –
4 1135.0 1127.0 0.71 – –
5 1408.2 1397.4 0.77 – –
6 2495.7 2473.1 0.91 – –
7 2654.3 2635.1 0.73 – –
8 4018.4 4006.7 0.29 – –
9 4320.2 4294.0 0.61 – –
10 5815.9 5781.8 0.59 – –
2 1 80.154 79.921 0.29 – 80.394
2 135.38 135.49 −0.09 – –
3 368.82 369.02 −0.05 – –
4 447.56 444.06 0.79 – –
5 585.48 580.92 0.78 – –
6 733.14 733.50 −0.05 – –
7 1109.5 1101.8 0.71 – –
8 1222.1 1217.8 0.36 – –
9 1416.3 1409.5 0.48 – –
10 1789.5 1790.7 −0.06 – –
3 1 73.498 73.090 0.56 – 70.904
2 135.29 135.40 −0.08 – –
3 367.13 367.29 −0.04 – –
4 429.10 425.86 0.76 – –
5 479.58 475.53 0.85 – –
6 598.27 594.06 0.71 – –
7 727.83 727.06 0.10 – –
8 761.78 755.44 0.84 – –
9 1203.4 1203.2 0.01 – –
10 1318.3 1310.4 0.60 – –

In the current 1D model, the total resultant transverse force of 𝐹 (𝑡)
is applied at the node at 𝑥 = 0 (Fig. 7(b)). We employ the eight-node
SEs and the HPLSC model for satisfying delamination front continuity
in the present and all subsequent examples. The converged solution for
this case is achieved by taking 25 elements in segment AB, ten elements
in each sub-laminate in the delaminated region BC, and 45 elements in
CD and a time step of 100 ns. The deflection 𝑤 is recorded at the sensor
location S at the top surface of the laminate at 15 mm from the entry
point of delamination (Fig. 7).
As the panel has a symmetric lay-up [0◦ /90◦ /0◦ ], the given loading
excites only the antisymmetric Lamb wave mode A0 , which transmits
through the sub-laminates and is seen at the sensor location S as the
first prominent waveform in Fig. 7 (c). Let us denote this waveform as
the A0 A0 mode. At the same time, the interaction at the delamination
entry point B results in a symmetric mode S0 due to mode conversion.
However, being symmetric, this mode, called A0 S0 mode, is not visible
in the 𝑤0 response at the sensor location (S). But, when it reaches
the exit point C of the delamination, it transforms into an A0 mode,

9
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

Table 5
Natural frequencies (Hz) of first ten flexural modes of a cantilever composite beam ([0◦ /90◦ ]2𝑆 ) having multiple delaminations of 101.6 mm
length.
No. of del. Flexural mode Present 2D FE % error FSDT [98] Ref. [71]
1 1 73.092 72.756 0.46 73.147 73.303
2 123.93 122.97 0.78 – –
3 333.93 331.29 0.80 – –
4 460.87 457.52 0.73 – –
5 653.83 648.63 0.80 – –
6 1066.4 1059.6 0.64 – –
7 1142.1 1137.1 0.45 – –
8 1605.9 1593.4 0.78 – –
9 2226.6 2219.5 0.32 – –
10 2245.4 2227.8 0.79 – –
2 1 33.332 33.345 −0.04 – 33.361
2 72.980 72.574 0.56 – –
3 93.752 93.796 −0.05 – –
4 124.24 123.24 0.81 – –
5 182.01 182.09 −0.04 – –
6 299.79 299.91 −0.04 – –
7 334.26 331.51 0.83 – –
8 447.45 447.45 0.00 – –
9 478.78 474.82 0.83 – –
10 625.19 625.38 −0.03 – –
3 1 32.974 32.975 0.00 – 33.022
2 50.841 50.490 0.70 – –
3 93.144 93.180 −0.04 – –
4 120.78 119.84 0.78 – –
5 126.46 125.59 0.69 – –
6 181.91 181.99 −0.04 – –
7 298.99 298.96 0.01 – –
8 318.55 317.32 0.39 – –
9 332.89 330.33 0.78 – –
10 341.90 339.36 0.75 – –

Table 6
Convergence study on mesh size of the SE model for natural frequencies of thick (𝑆=5) composite beams ([0◦ /90◦ ]𝑆 ) with
delamination size of 50% of the span.
Mesh Mode Natural frequency (Hz)
(𝑛𝐿 , 𝑛𝐷 , 𝑛𝑅 ) number Cantilever Simply supported
PC HPLS PC HPLS
4, 2, 4 1 212.00 191.13 510.76 526.64
2 827.71 817.35 940.51 910.89

4, 4, 4 1 212.00 191.29 510.77 526.64

2 827.11 817.34 940.51 910.87

8, 8, 8 1 212.00 191.29 510.77 526.64

2 827.11 817.34 940.51 910.87

Table 7
Natural frequencies (Hz) of thick (𝑆=5) cantilever and simply-supported delaminated composite beams ([0◦ /90◦ ]𝑆 ): Comparison of the two
continuity models with 3D FE solution.
Delamination Mode Cantilever Simply supported
size (%) number PC Hybrid 3D FE [50] PC Hybrid 3D FE [50]
10 1 248.05 242.12 239.36 526.63 552.39 553.49
2 845.32 858.23 854.82 1443.56 1325.47 1305.30

25 1 247.11 231.77 224.69 515.36 549.04 551.91

2 829.01 857.85 846.90 1352.11 1189.14 1125.40

50 1 212.00 191.29 179.55 510.77 526.64 526.84

2 827.11 817.34 785.19 940.51 910.87 836.87

now to be called A0 S0 A0 mode, due to mode conversion and travels
back to the sensor location S. It is seen as the second wave packet in
the response shown in Fig. 7 (c). The present ZIGT-based SE model is
able to predict both the direct A0 A0 and reflected A0 S0 A0 waveforms in
close agreement with the continuum-based reference solution [24]. It
validates the current SE model in conjunction with the HPLSC method
as well as shows its accuracy in simulating Lamb wave propagation and
its interaction with delamination damage in composite panels.
6.3. Surface-bonded transducer induced lamb wave propagation for SHM
In Lamb wave-based SHM techniques, the guided waves are com-
monly generated using thin piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS)
surface-bonded to the host structure. In the current example, we take
such a problem to assess the present SE’s accuracy in predicting Lamb
wave propagation and its interaction with delamination in composite
panels. The composite panel (state of plane strain along 𝑦-direction)

10
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
Fig. 6. Hann window modulated tone burst signal having seven cycles with 𝑓 = 200 kHz showing its (a) time-history and (b) frequency spectrum (Fourier transform).
Fig. 7. Schematic configuration of the composite panel [0◦ /90◦ /0◦ ] containing a delamination (BC) of length 50 mm at the first interface from bottom for the problem of Ref. [24],
showing the transverse force application in (a) the 2D FE model, (b) the present 1D SE model, and (c) deflection response at the sensor location S due to excitation of seven-cycle
Hann window modulated signal of central frequency 𝑓 = 200 kHz at A.
considered in the study is 1.8 m in length and is made of a six-layer
graphite/epoxy (Gr/Ep 3, see Table 3) laminate [0◦ /90◦ /0◦ ]𝑆 with
each layer of 0.5 mm thickness. The PWAS transducer is not modelled
physically, but the stress transfer from the piezoelectric patch of length
𝑎 is represented by an in-plane force pair ∓𝐹 (𝑡) applied at the two
transducer edges B′ and C′ , separated by distance 𝑎, on the plate surface
(see Fig. 8(a)). Such excitations generate both symmetric (S0 ) and
antisymmetric (A0 ) Lamb wave modes in the un-delaminated strip.
We consider the PWAS of size 𝑎 = 7 mm and record the output at
the sensor location S at 300 mm from the centre of the PWAS patch.
The delamination is of length 𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑙 = 50 mm, located at the first interface
from the bottom (Fig. 8(c)). The centre-to-centre distance between the
delamination and actuator (𝑥𝑑𝑒𝑙
𝑐 ) is 150 mm. The force 𝐹 (𝑡) is the Hann
window modulated tone burst signal defined in the previous section
with 𝐹0 = 1 N, 𝑁𝐵 = 5, 𝑡0 = 0, and 𝑓 = 70 and 100 kHz.
The benchmark solution for the problem is developed using a
continuum-based 2D FE model employing the plane-strain eight-node
quadratic element with reduced integration (CPE8R) in the commercial
software ABAQUS. After checking for convergence, the panel length
and total thickness are discretized with 2000 and 12 elements, respec-
tively, to obtain the reference solution. Fig. 9 shows the FE mesh of
a portion of the panel showing the intact segment and the entry of
delamination in undeformed and deformed configurations.
For the 1D element model in which only the length direction is
discretized, the forces ∓𝐹 (𝑡) at B′ and C′ are transferred to the mid-
plane of the laminate with additional bending moments ±𝑀(𝑡) = ℎ∕2 ×
𝐹 (𝑡), and higher order moments ∓𝑃 = 𝑅𝐿 (ℎ∕2) × 𝐹 (𝑡) at locations B
and C (shown in Fig. 8(b)). The response of the delaminated panel is
obtained for two excitation frequencies, 70 and 100 kHz. For converged
solutions, two different mesh sizes of 72 and 92 SEs are employed to
11
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
discretize the length for these two excitation cases. We try to keep the
element length almost equal in each section. However, the transducer
section (BC) and delamination section (E1 E2 ) have 1 and 2 elements
for both excitation frequencies. For clarity, the sections AB, CE1 , E2 S,
and SD are discretized respectively with 28, 5, 5, and 29 eight-node
elements for the 70 kHz excitation and 37, 6, 6, and 38 elements for
the 100 kHz excitation. The time step is taken as 0.4 μs and 0.2 μs for
70 and 100 kHz frequencies, respectively.
The smeared refined TOT [93] assumes the same third-order varia-
tion as the ZIGT for the in-plane displacement 𝑢 globally in the thick-
ness direction but does not have the layerwise terms. Both theories,
however, have the same number of primary displacement variables,
i.e., DOFs per node in the elements. So, a comparison with the TOT-
based SE would allow us to quantify the contribution of these layerwise
terms to the solution accuracy. We keep the same mesh in the TOT
model as in the ZIGT for comparison, leading to the same number of
total DOFs in both models.
In Fig. 10, the in-plane displacement 𝑢(𝑡) is plotted at the sensor
location S obtained from the present ZIGT, TOT, and continuum-based
2D FE models. The surface shear-type actuation induces both in-plane
force and moments in the plate, exciting the fundamental symmetric
mode (S0 ) and antisymmetric mode (A0 ) of Lamb wave, respectively, at
the given frequencies. These wave modes get transmitted through the
sub-laminates and are seen in the response at S. In addition to these
two waveforms, an extra mode also appears between them. This extra
mode results from the interaction of the S0 and A0 modes with the entry
and exit ends of delamination, causing mode conversion. It is a distinct
damage feature that can be used to identify delamination damage in
composite structures. The results show that the present ZIGT-based
SE yields an accurate solution for both the fundamental modes and
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
Fig. 8. Schematic configuration of the six-layer composite panel containing delamination for studying its effect on Lamb wave propagation induced by a PWAS patch pasted at
B′ C′ . (a) Actuator force application in the 2D FE model according to the pin-force method, (b) application of equivalent force system in the 1D model, and (c) laminate lay-up
showing the location of delamination interface. The response is recorded at S.
Fig. 9. Portion of 2D FE model in ABAQUS for the delaminated six-layer composite panel showing the mesh: (a) undeformed and (b) deformed configurations.
the extra mode in comparison with the continuum-based benchmark
solution. However, the TOT-based solution yields a good match only
for the S0 mode and exhibits significant deviations in the time of arrival
(ToA) and peak amplitude (PA) for both the extra mode and the A0
mode. It shows that layerwise description of 𝑢 incorporated in the ZIGT
without any additional cost over in the TOT is essential for accurate
solution of the A0 mode and the extra mode caused by delamination
damage in the laminated composite panels.
6.4. Spectral element versus standard FE
In this section, the above-mentioned wave propagation problem is
utilized to verify the superiority or otherwise of the present SE with the
standard FE based on the ZIGT [101,102]. By standard FE, we mean
the two-node FE employing Hermite shape functions for 𝑤0 and linear
Lagrange shape functions for 𝑢0 and 𝜓0 . This analysis is performed for
the five-cycle tone burst pulse excitations with 100 and 200 kHz central
frequencies. The time steps are taken as 0.2 μs and 0.1 μs for the two
frequencies, respectively.
Since analytical solutions of the ZIGT are not available for this
problem, an accurate numerical solution based on the ZIGT is needed
as the reference solution for this assessment. Accordingly, the standard
FE obtained employing a very fine mesh of 6000 two-node elements is
taken as the reference. The time steps for the time marching are the
same as specified above.
For the 100 kHz pulse input, the mesh in the SE model is the same
as described in the preceding section, with a total of 92 eight-node
elements. For the 200 kHz pulse excitation, the converged solution is
12
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
obtained for the displacement time-history 𝑢(𝑡) at S by using a mesh of
a total of 155 SEs with sections AB, BC, CE1 , E1 E2 , E2 S, and SD having
62, 1, 10, 5, 10, and 62 elements. To assess its relative performance, we
develop standard FE models of the equivalent number of DOFs using
645 and 1075 two-node elements. These models employ 261, 7, 42,
15, 44, and 261 elements and 435, 7, 71, 25, 73, and 439 elements in
the aforementioned segments for the 100 kHz and 200 kHz excitations,
respectively.
Fig. 11 compares the present SE and the two-node FE solutions
with the reference solution. It is seen that while the current solutions
practically coincide with the reference solutions for all modes in the
response, the standard FE solution with an equivalent number of DOFs
has large errors in the ToA and PA for the A0 and extra modes. For
the higher frequency of 200 kHz, significant numerical dispersion and
spurious oscillations can be seen in both A0 and extra modes, a well-
known feature of the standard FEM. This example establishes that the
present SE is far more computationally efficient and accurate than the
standard FE for simulating wave propagation and its interaction with
delamination damage in composite structures.
6.5. Localization of delamination damage using lamb wave response
In this section, we use the present SE solution to study the local-
ization of delamination defects using guided wave response. For this
investigation, the same composite panel as given in Section 6.3 and
shown in Fig. 8 is considered unless otherwise stated below. The central
frequency of the pulse excitation is taken as 100 kHz. The idea here
is whether the location of delamination can be ascertained from the
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
Fig. 10. Comparison of ZIGT- and TOT-SE solutions with continuum-based 2D FE
simulation in ABAQUS for 𝑢(𝑡) due to surface-bonded transducer actuation at B′ C′ with
a modulated five-cycle tone burst signal. The output is recorded at sensor location S
on the top surface of the delaminated panel.
responses measured at a surface of the panel. Note that the actual
damage localization can be achieved only by physical measurements
of response. Nevertheless, the simulation can help interpretation of the
measurement data as well as in training a data-driven machine learning
model.
With this objective, the time-history response at an individual sensor
position on the top surface of panel is studied first to identify possible
damage signature. We consider a delamination of length 𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑙 = 25 mm
at a centre-to-centre distance of 𝑥𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝑐 = 150 mm from the actuator.
The interfacial location of delamination is varied as the first, second,
fourth, and fifth interface from the bottom (see Fig. 8). Fig. 12 depicts
the in-plane displacement response 𝑢(𝑡) at the sensor location S for the
four cases. The S0 and A0 mode waveforms do not seem to be affected
by the interfacial location of the delamination defect. However, the
extra mode bears distinct signatures of the interfacial location. Noting
that the laminate is symmetric, for the delaminated interface pairs
that are equidistant from the mid-plane, the extra mode has the same
amplitude but opposite phases which can be used to differentiate on
which side of the mid-plane the interface is located. Further, the extra
mode amplitude and dispersion (waveform length change) are higher
for delaminations nearer to the laminate’s mid-plane. Thus, the extra
mode’s amplitude, dispersion, and phase can be used as viable features
to identify the interfacial location of delamination.
Next, the delamination location is varied along the length direction.
To identify the spatial location, we compute the square sum of the
transverse velocity 𝑤̇ 0 (𝑡) as observed at the panel’s top surface, denoted
∑𝑇𝑠 2
as 𝐸𝑤 = 𝑡=0 𝑤̇ 0 (𝑡), for the time history up to the A0 mode, i.e., 𝑇𝑠 =
230 μs. The transverse velocity profile along the panel’s surface can be
measured in practice by non-contact laser vibrometers [103]. 𝐸𝑤 gives
the measure of the transverse kinetic energy of the panel. In Fig. 13, 𝐸𝑤
is plotted against the 𝑥-coordinate from the actuator to the sensor for
13
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
Fig. 11. Comparison of solution accuracy of present SE and standard FE models of
the same size for the A0 mode and the delamination induced extra mode of the
axial displacement 𝑢(𝑡) recorded at S on panel’s top surface (Fig. 8) due to modulated
five-cycle tone burst excitation at B′ C′ .
three delamination locations 𝑥𝑑𝑒𝑙
𝑐 = 0.0860 m, 0.1500 m, and 0.2175 m
(i.e., 𝑥 = 0.8360 m, 0.9 m, and 0.9675 m). To ascertain the sensitivity
of this variation to the delaminated interface location, it is plotted
for three interfacial locations (interface 1, 3, and 5 from the bottom).
For all interfacial locations, we see a distinct spike in the energy in
the delamination region. Notably, its peak occurs at the delamination
centre, giving a clear feature for accurately localizing the damage. The
peak decreases as the distance of the delamination from the actuator
increases for the delaminated interfaces not lying on the mid-plane.
For the delamination at the middle interface, we do not see such a
decreasing trend of the peak energy with the delamination’s distance
from the actuator, which is due to the absence of the extra mode in
the response signal. For delamination interfaces away from the sensor
surface, other smaller spikes are also observed behind the main spike in
the delaminated region, but they almost vanish for interface-5, which
is closest to the sensor-side surface.
7. Conclusions
A time-domain high-order spectral strip element has been developed
based on the efficient layerwise zigzag theory for free vibration and
wave propagation analyses of laminated beams and panels (strips)
containing multiple delaminations at arbitrary axial and interfacial lo-
cations. It represents the first spectral element based on an ELT, which
combines high accuracy with the computational efficiency required for
fast simulation of high-frequency guided wave propagation problems.
Using the region approach of modelling delaminations, the formulation
incorporates the conventional PC model and the recently developed
advanced HPLSC model in the context of the high-order SE for satis-
fying the continuity of the displacement field at delamination fronts.
It does so using the exact transformation matrix approach instead of
M. Jain and S. Kapuria
Fig. 12. Effect of interfacial location of delamination on the in-plane displacement 𝑢(𝑡) measured at sensor location S on the top surface of the panel due to Hann windowed
five-count tone burst excitation with 𝑓 = 100 kHz.
the widely used approximate penalty approach. A detailed numerical
study has been performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed
element for analysis of delaminated strips, from which the following
inferences can be drawn.
The proposed ZIGT SE in conjunction with the HPLSC model for
continuity gives very accurate results for natural frequencies of thin and
thick composite beams containing multiple delaminations with refer-
ence to continuum-based FE solutions. The continuity model employed
at the delamination fronts has a large influence on the accuracy for
thick laminated structures. The standard PC model may yield large
errors even for the fundamental frequency for such structures, particu-
larly when the delaminations are large and hence is not recommended
for use.
The proposed SE exhibits excellent accuracy in simulating Lamb
wave propagation and its interactions with delaminations, which are
used as damage features for SHM applications. Its predictions match
the continuum-based FE solutions excellently well, not only for the
direct S0 and A0 modes but also for the extra mode generated due to
mode conversion at the entry and exit fronts of delaminations. This
extra mode can be used as a distinguishing feature to identify the
presence of damage in the structure. However, the TOT, which has the
same number of DOFs as the ZIGT, produces significant errors in the
prediction of the time of arrival and the peak amplitude for A0 and
extra modes. It shows the high importance of the layerwise description
incorporated in the in-plane displacement field 𝑢 in the ZIGT without
additional computational cost over the TOT. The standard FE model
with a similar number of DOFs as the present SE model produces
significant numerical dispersion and spurious oscillations in the direct
14
Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585
A0 mode and the mode-converted extra mode, displaying its inferior
performance over the latter in terms of computational efficiency and
accuracy.
The amplitude, dispersion, and phase of the extra mode generated
by Lamb wave’s interaction with delamination can be used as viable
features to identify the interfacial location of delaminations. On the
other hand, its longitudinal location can be identified from the plot of
the square sum of transverse velocity, which shows a distinct spike in
the delamination region.
In summary, the proposed ZIGT SE-based model with the HPLSC
method for ensuring continuity at the delamination front fills up an
important void in the development of an accurate and computation-
ally efficient technique for simulating guided wave propagation in
delaminated composite structures. This development will benefit the
model-based SHM and physics-assisted data-driven SHM of laminated
composite structures featuring delamination damage. The current for-
mulation will be extended for the delaminated composite strips with
physically modelled surface-bonded piezoelectric sensors and actuators
with or without debonding.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Mayank Jain: Methodology, Software, Investigation, Visualization,
Validation, Writing – original draft. Santosh Kapuria: Conceptualiza-
tion, Methodology, Software, Supervision, Writing – review & editing,
Resources, Funding acquisition.
M. Jain and S. Kapuria Composite Structures 325 (2023) 117585

Fig. 13. Variation of transverse kinetic energy parameter 𝐸𝑤 along the top surface of the panel between the actuator and sensor for different longitudinal locations of delamination
introduced at (a) bottommost, (b) middle, and (c) topmost interfaces. The up-arrows on the 𝑥-axis indicate the positions of the peaks of the 𝐸𝑤 profiles, which are seen to almost
coincide with the centres of delaminations, clearly identifying their presence.

Declaration of competing interest Acknowledgements

The Science & Engineering Research Board, Government of India,

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan- has provided financial support for this work to S. Kapuria through J.
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to C. Bose National Fellowship (Grant No. JCB/2018/000025) and Core
influence the work reported in this paper. Research Grant (CRG-2021-001237).

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