Predicting the influence of temperature on fatigue crack propagation in Fibre Metal Laminates

A robust crack growth prediction tool has been developed for a class of hybrid skin materials known as Fibre Metal Laminates (FMLs) which has been thoroughly validated for fatigue loading cases at room temperature. This paper provides a brief overview of this predictive model and presents an investigation into its predictive capabilities at various temperatures. Amongst the temperature effects investigated are crack growth rate in the metal layers, delamination growth rate along the metal–fibre interfaces, and residual curing stresses within the laminate. Results from this investigation indicate that the present model accounting for these effects can accurately predict crack growth in FMLs at room temperature and elevated temperature, but is overly conservative for predictions at low temperatures.     

Experimental Behaviour of RC Beams Shear Strengthened with NSM CFRP Laminates

Abstract: The near‐surface mounted (NSM) is one of the most recent techniques applied for the increase of the shear resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. This technique involves the installation of carbon fibre reinforcement polymers (CFRP) laminates into thin slits open on the concrete cover of the elements to strengthen. The effectiveness of this technique for the shear strengthening of T cross‐section RC beams was assessed by experimental research. For this purpose, three inclinations of laminates were tested (45º, 60º and 90º) and, for each inclination, three percentages of CFRP were applied in RC beams with a percentage of steel stirrups of 0.10% (ρ_sw). The highest percentage of laminates was designed to provide a maximum load similar to the reference RC beam, which was reinforced with a reinforcement ratio of steel stirrups of 0.28% (ρ_sw = 0.28%). For each percentage of laminates, a homologous RC beam strengthened with unidirectional U‐shaped CFRP wet lay‐up sheets (discrete strips) applied according to the externally bonded reinforcement technique was also tested, with the purpose of comparing the effectiveness of these two CFRP‐strengthening techniques. To evaluate the influence of the percentage of steel stirrups in the effectiveness of the NSM technique, some of the abovementioned CFRP configurations were also applied in beams with ρ_sw = 0.17%.     

Modelling of attenuation of Lamb waves using Rayleigh damping: Numerical and experimental studies

In this study, the Lamb mode attenuation constants were derived in terms of the attenuation coefficient, group velocity and central frequency of excitation of the Lamb mode, using the Rayleigh damping model. Attenuation of Lamb waves, both fundamental symmetric and anti-symmetric modes, propagating through viscoelastic media (cross-ply glass/epoxy laminate) was modelled using the Finite Element Method. Numerically simulated attenuation of Lamb waves using Lamb mode attenuation constants was found to be in good agreement with the assumed attenuation. Experiments were performed on a quasi-isotropic laminate, employing air-coupled ultrasonic transducers, to measure the attenuation coefficient. Lamb mode attenuation constants, computed using the attenuation coefficient, were used to model the attenuation of the Lamb mode in quasi-isotropic laminates. Numerically simulated amplitude variation was found to be in good agreement with that computed from experiments.     

Variation in the group velocity of Lamb waves as a tool for the detection of delamination in GLARE aluminium plate-like structures

With the development of new technology and use of lightweight material such as composite laminates, new methods must be developed for in situ structural health monitoring of these materials. This paper introduces an approach for the detection of delamination present in GLARE aluminium specimens. The approach is based on the change in group velocity of Lamb waves with frequency–thickness product as the determinant parameter for the detection of delamination. Two methods are applied: a surface contact method, which utilises a wedge probe tuned to excite a single Lamb mode, and the embedded PZT method, which involves incorporating lead zirconate titanate (PZT) elements in the glass fibre reinforced resin matrix during the manufacture of the GLARE aluminium specimens. It was found that both methods enabled the detection of delaminations in the GLARE aluminium specimens, within certain limits, which are stated.     

On attenuation and measurement of Lamb waves in viscoelastic composites

In this work, the influence of viscoelastic material properties, as featured by fibre reinforced plastics, on the measurement of Lamb waves with the aid of surface-applied piezoelectric sensors is examined. The focus points are frequency dependent material dampening and dispersion on the one hand and the impact of sensor size, wave excitation and measurement method on the other hand. The dependence of the measured wave propagation characteristics and the deviation from the actual characteristics is investigated to assess the relevance for Lamb wave based nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring methods. The sensor responses of piezoelectric sensors bonded to the surface of a viscoelastic composite are predicted by a comprehensive model including these influencing factors. The modelling approach is compared with experimentally measured values to evaluate both the methods and the relevance of the influencing factors.     

Delamination growth in Fibre Metal Laminates under variable amplitude loading

This paper presents the experimental and analytical investigation of the effect of variable amplitude (VA) load sequences on delamination behavior in Fibre Metal Laminates (FMLs). Delamination tests were performed and results are compared with linear damage accumulation predictions. Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) was used to analyse the delaminated surfaces to study the delamination growth rate under VA loading in more detail. The correlation between test results and predictions highlighted the absence of load sequence and interaction effects in delamination growth rate under VA loading. This correlation is supported by the SEM observations.     

A Generalized Finite Element Method for polycrystals with discontinuous grain boundaries

We present a Generalized Finite Element Method for the analysis of polycrystals with explicit treatment of grain boundaries. Grain boundaries and junctions, understood as loci of possible displacement discontinuity, are inserted into finite elements by exploiting the partition of unity property of finite element shape functions. Consequently, the finite element mesh does not need to conform to the polycrystal topology. The formulation is outlined and a numerical example is presented to demonstrate the potential and accuracy of the approach. The proposed methodology can also be used for branched and intersecting cohesive cracks, and comparisons are made to a related approach (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 2000; 48 :1741). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Delamination and fatigue crack growth behavior in Fiber Metal Laminates (Glare) under single overloads

Delamination extension and fatigue crack growth behaviors under single overloads were investigated for GLARE 2-2/1-0.3 with fiber direction of 00/00. The results indicate that the stress intensity factor at the crack tip in metal layer while overload applied, K_tip,ol is a key controlling variable which influences fatigue crack growth and delamination behaviors. When K_tip,ol becomes bigger and exceeds a critical value, an obvious kink in the delamination shape is observed nearby the location of overload applied. Crack growth rate after application of overload could not return to its original level even the crack grows beyond the overload plastic zone. The reduction magnitude of the crack growth rate becomes bigger with the overload ratio (intrinsically K_tip,ol) increasing. These new results for the crack growth behavior have never been reported before, which can be well explained by the delamination extension behavior observed after overload applied.     

Real-time damage mechanisms assessment in CFRP samples via acoustic emission Lamb wave modal analysis

This paper proposes a very promising acquisition-analysis procedure to evaluate real-time damage in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite plates by means of the acoustic emission (AE) method. It shows how, by using appropriate acquisition frequency filters and very narrow time windows, it is possible to avoid reflection at boundaries and successfully split the A0 and S0 Lamb modes of the AE signals. After that, an appropriate algorithm —based on the comparison of strength of both modes in time and frequency domains— allows one to associate each AE event to a particular damage mechanism (delamination, fiber breaking and matrix micro-cracking). Experimental results from three point bending tests carried out on 22-layer CFRP samples, with delamination artificially induced by a Teflon film, clearly demonstrate the real-time evaluation of the induced delamination and the beginning and growth of new ones.     

Impact Damage Detection in Composite Structures Considering Nonlinear Lamb Wave Propagation

To detect micro-structural damages like fiber/matrix cracks and delaminations in composite materials accurately new methods are developed. Previous works have investigated and shown that the acoustical nonlinearity parameter is a good tool to detect micro-structural damages like plasticity in metal and fatigue damages in metal and composites. In this work, the second harmonic generation is used to analyze composite specimens for impact damages. Therefore, Lamb waves are launched and detected by a piezoelectric actuator and sensor, respectively, at a certain frequency to generate cumulative second harmonic modes. The excitation frequency has to meet special conditions. The signal processing is done by using the wavelet transform to avoid misinterpretations that may occur using the short-time Fourier transform. The Morlet wavelet is used as the mother wavelet. The results of the relative acoustical nonlinearity parameter are compared to the development of the group velocity due to impact damages. It is shown that the relative acoustical nonlinearity parameter is more sensitive to impact damages than the development of the group velocity.     

Effects of temperature on impact damages in CFRP composite laminates

In this paper, the effect of temperature variations (low and high temperatures) was studied experimentally on impact damage to CFRP laminates. The composite laminates used in this experiment were CF/EPOXY orthotropic laminated plates with lay-up [0₆/90₆]_s and [0₄/90₄]_s, and CF/PEEK orthotropic laminated plates with a lay-up of [0₆/90₆]_s. A steel ball launched by the air gun was used to generate the CFRP laminate impact damage. For impact-damaged specimens, nondestructive evaluation (NDE), such as a scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) was performed on the delamination-damaged samples to characterize damage growth at different temperatures.

Therefore, this study was undertaken to experimentally determine the interrelations between impact energy and impact damage (i.e. the delamination area and matrix) of CFRP laminates (CF/EPOXY and CF/PEEK) subjected to foreign object damages (FOD) at low and high temperatures.     

Residual compressive strength of laminated plates with delamination

A study of residual compressive strength in delaminated laminates is presented. A methodology is proposed for simulating the whole compressive failure responses, such as initial buckling, postbuckling, contact of delamination front region, delamination propagation, fiber breakage, and matrix cracking etc. An finite element analysis (FEA) of the residual compressive strength is conducted on the basis of the Von Karman's nonlinearity assumption and the first-order shear deformation plate theory, combined with a stiffness degradation scheme. The numerical analysis models and methods are briefly introduced in this paper and some numerical examples are presented to illustrate it. From numerical results and discussion, it is clear that the compressive failure response involves complex multi-failure modes during compressive process. The method and numerical conclusions provide in this paper should of great value to engineers dealing with composite structures.     

经验模态分解去噪技术及其在兰姆波检测中的应用

经验模态分解(EMD)是一种新出现的处理非线性、非稳态数据的信号分析方法,通过三次样条包络分离数据的高阶成分和趋势。利用EMD的这种特性对超声兰姆波检测中的实测信号作去噪处理,并与小波去噪结果进行了对比,表明EMD去噪具有更强的自适应能力,且需知的原信号先验信息更少。     

New Developments in Structural Health Monitoring Based on Diagnostic Lamb Wave

Structure health monitoring based on diagnostic Lamb waves has been found to be one of the most promising techniques recently. This paper has a brief review of the new developments on this method including the basic novel of the method, fundamentals and mathematics of Lamb wave propagation, narrowband and wideband Lamb wave excitation methods, optimization of excitation factors and diagnostic Lamb wave interpretation methods.     

Numerical Simulation of Fluid-Structure Interaction of LNG Prestressed Storage Tank under Seismic Influence

Aim of this paper is to estimate the integrity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) prestressed storage tank under seismic influence. The coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) analysis technique is used to simulate the fluid-structure interaction between LNG and the cylinder of LNG prestressed storage tank. The 3-D model of LNG has been dispersed by Eulerian mesh that is different from traditional analysis method which is called the added mass method. Meanwhile, both of the 3-D models of prestressed rebar and concrete structure are dispersed by Lagrangian mesh. Following conclusions are obtained: 1) Natural frequency of the whole model has been obtained by using the Block Lanczos algorithm in Abaqus; 2) Seismic waves of El Centro and Taft have been selected for time history analysis, and curves of displacement, stress and acceleration have been plotted under two seismic waves respectively. By comparing time points when the maximum displacement, stress and acceleration occurred to splash phenomena of LNG liquid surface, numerical results can fit splash phenomena of LNG very well. 3)When El Centro wave is imported, the maximum values of displacement and tension stress of concrete structure are 7.729mm and 2.16MPa respectively, and the maximum values of displacement and tension stress of concrete structure are 9.4mm and 0.24MPa respectively when Taft wave is applied. The values of maximum tension stress are less than the axial tensile strength of the standard value of concrete, which indicate that the structure of LNG prestressed storage tank is safe, and numerical results can provide a reference to monitor the liability of this kind of structures.     

Simulations of delamination in CFRP laminates: Effect of microstructural randomness

Due to their high specific strength and stiffness, fibre-reinforced composite materials are being increasingly used in structural applications where a high level of performance is important (e.g. aerospace, automotive, offshore structures, etc.). Performance in service of these composites is affected by multi-mechanism damage evolution under loading and environmental conditions. For instance, carbon fibre-reinforced laminates demonstrate a wide spectrum of failure mechanisms such as matrix cracking and delamination. These damage mechanisms can result in significant deterioration of the residual stiffness and load-bearing capacity of composite components and should be thoroughly investigated. The delamination failure mechanism is studied in this paper for a double cantilever beam (DCB) loaded in mode I. Several sensitivity studies are performed to analyse the effects of mesh density and of parameters of the cohesive law on the character of damage propagation in laminates. The microstructural randomness of laminates that is responsible for non-uniform distributions of stresses in them even under uniform loading conditions is accounted for in the model. The random properties are introduced with the use of Weibull’s two-parameter probability density function. Several statistical realisations are carried out which show that the effect of microstructure could significantly affect the macroscopic response emphasizing the need to account for microstructural randomness for accurate predictions of load-carrying capacity of laminate composite structures.     

Damage assessment in layered composites using spectral analysis and Lamb wave

Piezo-ceramic transducers of the surface mounted type are commonly used for structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques. But, there is a disadvantage to use piezo-ceramic transducers of the surface mounted type in Lamb wave application. Due to the symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb wave modes generated by the surface mounted piezo-ceramic transducers simultaneously, the received signals are very complex and it is difficult to extract damage information from the signals.

In this paper, the practical method for SHM was proposed using piezo-ceramic transducers of the surface mounted type and Lamb wave. In order to overcome the difficulties in the signal processing of the simultaneous modes, the symmetric and antisymmetric modes were separated by using the two sensors bonded on the opposite surfaces at the same point. Also, spectral analyses of the separated symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb waves showed that each mode propagated with different frequency characteristics in the exciting frequency range.

By making use of these findings, the changes of power spectrum density in characteristic frequency band of symmetric and antisymmetric modes are proportional to the delamination size in quasi-isotropic Gr/Ep laminates. Therefore, this paper presents the damage assessment technique to extract damage information from the complicated PZT signals that could not be interpreted in time domain.     

激光激发薄管中超声兰姆波的数值模拟

用有限元方法,对薄管中热弹机制产生的激光超声进行了研究。在考虑材料热物理参数随温度变化的前提下,得到了薄铝管中的温度场和表面的超声导波,描绘了薄铝管中的逆时针向不同接收点处表面导波的时域波形图。由波形图可知,薄圆管中的激光超声导波是典型的L(0,m)模态的超声Lamb波,同时数值结果验证了管道中L(0,2)模式是传播速度最快且频散较小的导波,为激光超声导波在管道无损检测中的应用打下了一定的基础。