Fatigue & Fracture of

Engineering Materials & Structures

doi:10.1111/j.1460-2695.2008.01253.x

Comparative study of nonlinear acoustic and Lamb wave techniques

for fatigue crack detection in metallic structures
M. RYLES, F. H. NGAU, I. MCDONALD and W. J. STASZEWSKI
Dynamics Research Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Received in final form 4 June 2008

A B S T R A C T The paper deals with fatigue crack detection in metallic structures. A simple fatigue

experiment is performed to initiate and propagate a crack in an aluminium plate. The

plate is instrumented with two low-profile piezoceramic transducers and one low-profile
piezoceramic stack actuator. Nonlinear acoustics and Lamb waves are used for crack
detection. The former utilizes the high-frequency acoustical wave and low-frequency
modal excitation for damage detection. Modulations sidebands around the acoustical
spectral component are used to detect the crack. The latter produces Lamb wave responses
that are de-correlated due to the presence of the crack. Both effects are due to growing
fatigue crack. Two simple signal parameters, namely the intensity of modulation and
the normalized cross-correlation coefficient are used as damage indicators. The study
demonstrates similar sensitivity of both methods to small fatigue cracks.
Keywords fatigue crack detection; Lamb waves; metallic structures; nonlinear acoustics; piezoceramic transducers.

INTRODUCTION

Many different techniques based on ultrasonic wave propagation have been developed for fatigue crack detection.1,2 Ultrasonic testing, used in non-destructive testing
and evaluation (NDT/E), utilizes linear amplitude, phase
variations, mode conversion and energy partitioning of
reflected, transmitted or scattered high-frequency bulk
waves propagating through the thickness of monitored
specimens. The method is well established and widely
used in practice. In fact, it is the most versatile technique
used in industrial applications for over 60 years.
Lamb wave inspection is the most widely used damage detection technique utilizing ultrasonic-guided waves.
The method is based on Lamb waves propagating in platelike structures. The long-range inspection capability is
the major attraction of this technique for structural damage detection. The first application of Lamb waves for
damage detection goes back to 1950s.3 Despite the fact
that significant theoretical and experimental laboratory
experience has been gathered in this area of research over
many years, successful industrial applications are very limited. The complex wave propagation mechanism of Lamb
waves is one of the major difficulties. The subtleties of

Correspondence: W. J. Staszewski. E-mail: w.j.staszewski@sheffield.ac.uk

674

complex physics (multiple modes, dispersion mechanism)

and data interpretation (multiple reflections, mode conversions, unreliable signal features related to damage) require some experience related to monitoring strategy, as
described in Refs [1 and 46].
A number of hybrid techniques based on ultrasonic
and guided ultrasonic waves have also been proposed for
damage detection to improve the techniques described
above. These are acousto-ultrasonics,79 nonlinear acoustics,1022 vibro-acousto-ultrasonics23 and time-reversed
acoustics.2426 The nonlinear acoustics, developed in the
1970s is particularly attractive for structural damage detection. The method is based on nonlinear effects associated with ultrasonic wave propagation.
There are various studies investigating the sensitivity of
the method to fatigue cracks in metallic structures. Results from some fundamental work have shown that small
fatigue cracks, or even micro-cracks, can be detected with
the application of nonlinear acoustics. (e.g. Refs. 12,17,19)
This level of sensitivity found with the nonlinear acoustic
technique is seen as its major advantage. However, other
investigations demonstrate that detection of small cracks
is not visible when modulation effects are used.20
Despite various theoretical and experimental investigations related to nonlinear acoustics, no effort has been
made so far to compare this method with other crack


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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NONLINEAR ACOUSTIC AND LAMB WAVE TECHNIQUES

detection techniques based on ultrasonic waves. This is

the major objective of the current investigations. The paper aims to compare crack detection techniques based on
nonlinear acoustic and Lamb waves. For the sake of completeness, both approaches are briefly described in the
next section. A simple fatigue experiment is performed
to propagate a crack in an aluminium plate, as reported
in the section Experimental Investigations. This section
also describes how nonlinear acoustics and Lamb waves
are used for crack detection. It is important to note that
both methods utilize low-profile piezoceramic transducers for actuating and sensing. The results, presented in
the section Crack Detection Results, demonstrate that
for the case investigated the nonlinear acoustics has
the ability to detect cracks of the same order as the Lamb
wave-based method.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In what follows, a brief introduction to nonlinear acoustics and Lamb wave inspection is given. For more details
related to theoretical background, damage detection implementation and application examples, the readers are
guided to relevant literature.
Nonlinear acoustics for crack detection
The nonlinear acoustic technique can be introduced using a simple example presented in Fig. 1. The procedure
used in most studies to date begins with introducing a
high-frequency ultrasonic (acoustic) wave travelling between two transducers mounted on the specimen. A second form of excitation (vibration/modal) is introduced,
the frequency of which is much lower than for the ultra-

675

sonic wave. The low-frequency excitation is typically introduced with a hammer, mechanical shaker or ultrasonic
transducers.1022 The two different excitation signals are
run simultaneously in order to create the modulation effects. The output signal from the receiving transducer is
often analyzed in the frequency domain. In theory, while
the specimen is still intact the power spectrum shows the
fundamental acoustic harmonic at the exact frequency of
the ultrasonic wave. However, once a defect exists several
nonlinear effects can be observed. Often the amplitude
of the fundamental harmonic will decrease, its frequency
will be shifted, higher harmonics will appear but more noticeable will be the appearance of side bands or side lobes
around the fundamental harmonic, as reported in Refs
[1022]. These effects are the focal points of the nonlinear acoustic techniques used for damage detection. The
assumption is that nonlinear effects are due to damage and
that the structure does not contain any sources of nonlinearity. As damage to the specimen increases the nonlinear
effects will increase in intensity. It is important to note
that the combined vibro-acoustic interaction leading to
nonlinear effects is not related to a well-know nonlinear
breathing crack phenomenon that is not sensitive enough
to manifest itself in vibration/modal characteristics. However, the physical understanding of this interaction is still
not well understood and a number of different theoretical
explanations can be found in the literature, as summarized
in Ref.[19].
Different methods are used for the generation of acoustic and vibration signals; recent advancements in this
area include the use of low-profile piezoceramic transducers.27 The work described in this paper follows this
development.

Lamb wave inspection for crack detection

Ultrasonic
signal

Modal excitation

Amplitude

Undamaged Specimen

Frequency
Damage

Cracked Specimen
Amplitude

Monitored specimen

Frequency

Fig. 1 Illustration of nonlinear acoustic principle.

A Lamb wave is the best-known ultrasonic-guided wave.

A guided ultrasonic wave is a wave that, travelling through
the bulk of material, is bounded by various surfaces. Lamb
waves propagate in plates and results from the coupling
of two types of infinite numbers of symmetric and antisymmetric modes. The symmetric modes are often labelled as S 0 , S 1 , S 2 , S 3 , . . . whereas the anti-symmetric
modes are described as A 0 , A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , . . . . The thickness of the plate and the frequency of excitation depict
which and how many modes can propagate and what
the velocity of this propagation is for any given material. This information can be obtained numerically from
the so-called dispersion characteristics that can be calculated numerically from the RayleighLamb equations.
Figure 2 shows an example of the dispersion characteristics for aluminium.28 Further information on the theory
of Lamb waves can be found in Refs [2931].


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EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS

This section describes all experimental work performed

in the current investigations. First, the specimen used and
the work undertaken to initiate and propagate a crack are
described. Then, the experimental set-up and procedures
used to detect and monitor the propagating fatigue crack
are reported.
Aluminium specimen

Fig. 2 Dispersion characteristic for aluminium.28

Lamb wave
structure
Fig. 3 Illustration of Lamb wave inspection.

Lamb waves are often used for damage detection in

plate-like structures. The waves are introduced by a transducer at one point and sensed by another probe at a different location, as illustrated in Fig. 3. Structural damage
can be identified by a change of the response signal. A
majority of current inspection techniques based on Lamb
waves utilize wave attenuation, reflection and/or mode
conversion for damage detection.
The fact that these waves can travel long distances and
cover large areas, while using a relatively small number
of transducers, is highly advantageous. They have the potential to reduce inspection times dramatically and even
make inspections increasingly thorough by interrogating
areas and detecting damage where it was previously not
possible to do so. Lamb waves are also fully penetrative,
meaning unlike surface waves, damage and flaws can be
detected no matter what their position is within the thickness of monitored specimen. The other advantage of using Lamb waves for health monitoring is that a great
deal of research has been performed in this area. There
exist various methodologies, approaches, transducers, signal processing techniques, application examples related to
damage detection, as reviewed in Refs [1] and [30].

The structure under investigation was a rectangular 150

290 2 mm plate made from NS4 grade aluminium. A
sharp-edged notch was created in the centre of the plate
to initiate a fatigue crack. The notch was introduced by
drilling a 1 mm diameter hole and then extending the
notch (perpendicular to the later applied fatigue load) by
0.5 mm using a hacksaw blade of thickness 0.5 mm. Five
equally spaced 10 mm holes were also drilled near both
shorter edges of the plate for clamping in the fatigue test.
The plate was instrumented with four PI Ceramics PIC155 piezoceramic transducers of diameter 10 mm and
thickness 1 mm. However, only two transducers (indicated as A and B) were used for ultrasonic wave generation and sensing in both crack detection techniques.
A PI Ceramics PL-055.31 piezoceramic stack actuator
(5 5 2 mm) was additionally bonded on the plate.
This actuator was used for vibration excitation in nonlinear acoustics. All transducers were surface-bonded to
the plate using the X60 fast-curing two-component adhesive glue. A schematic diagram and a photograph of
the specimen together with the position of the notch and
piezo-transducers can be seen in Fig. 4.
Modal analysis
A simple modal analysis experiment was performed to
establish frequencies of vibration excitation used in nonlinear acoustics. The specimen was freely suspended using rubbers. The specimen was then excited using the
piezoceramic stack actuator with a sweep sine chirp signal starting at 1 Hz and linearly crossing 2 800 Hz in 2s.
A two-channel TTi-TGA 1242, 40 MHz arbitrary waveform generator was used to generate the excitation signal. This signal was amplified with the PI E-505 LVPZT
piezo-amplifier. The amplitude level was equal to 20 V.
A voltage meter was used to monitor the DC offset of the
excitation. The output response was measured using one
of the PIC-155 piezoceramic transducers bonded on the
plate. The response signal from the transducer was acquired using a four-channel LeCroy Waverunner LT264,
350, MHz, 1 GS/s digital oscilloscope. Figure 5 gives examples of the excitation and response signals used in the
experimental modal analysis test.


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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NONLINEAR ACOUSTIC AND LAMB WAVE TECHNIQUES

677

Fig. 4 Aluminium specimen used for crack

detection.

Sweep sine

Response signal

1.5
Amplitude (V)

Amplitude (V)

1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
-1.5
0.82

0.87

0.92

0.97

1.02

0.025
0.02
0.015
0.01
0.005
0
-0.005
-0.01
-0.015
-0.02
-0.025
0

0.2

Time (s)

0.4

0.6

0.8

Time (s)

Fig. 5 Input and output signals used in modal analysis.

The frequency response function, calculated in MATLAB using the input and output signals, is given in
Fig. 6. This reveals a number of vibration modes of the
plate. The 118 Hz frequency mode was used in the nonlinear acoustic test for the low-frequency excitation. This
frequency corresponded approximately to the theoretical
value of the first bending mode of the plate.
Having decided upon the low-frequency excitation the
initial, that is, no crack damage detection data, were obtained following the procedures described in the previous
section.

Fatigue tests
In order to initiate and propagate a crack in the plate,
fatigue testing was used. The plate was fatigued using
an ESH hydraulic testing machine, as shown in Fig. 7.
The specimen was placed under a maximum combined
dynamic and static loading of 27 kN. The frequency of
excitation was equal to 10 Hz. The loading format was
kept to a tensiletensile format to make sure the specimen
did not buckle. A simple calculation was performed in
order to estimate the required dynamic loading. Initially
the load was set to a relatively low level to make sure the


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M . R Y L E S et al .

Resonant peak at a frequency of 118 Hz

FRF
10

Amplitude

0.1

0.01

0.001

Fig. 6 Frequency response function for the

aluminium specimen.

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Frequency

Crack Propagation Curve

Crack length [mm]

60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
500000

550000

600000

650000

700000

Number of Cycles
Fig. 8 Crack propagation curve.

Experimental set-up and procedures for crack

detection
Fig. 7 Fatigue testing arrangements.

Experimental set-up
specimen would not fail in the early stages. The load was
then increased to just above the calculated level. After the
crack had reached a certain length the loading was reduced
again to ensure the specimen did not fail completely.
The crack was observed using a 15 magnification and
measured using a steel ruler accurate to 0.5 mm. The first
crack was spotted at 535 000 cycles at a length of 1.0 mm.
The specimen was fatigued up to 674 500 cycles. Figure 8
shows the crack propagation curve. The maximum crack
observed was 51.5 mm, as shown in Fig. 9.
After subsequent crack length measurements, the specimen was unclamped for nonlinear acoustic and Lamb
wave tests, as described in the next section.

The set-up of the equipment used to monitor the specimen for fatigue cracks is shown in Fig. 10. A two-channel
TTi-TGA 1242, 40 MHz arbitrary waveform generator
was used to generate all signals, that is, low-frequency
harmonic vibration, high-frequency acoustic sine wave
and Lamb waves. The PI E-505 LVPZT piezo-amplifier
was used to amplify the vibration signal from the waveform generator. This signal was used to drive the piezoceramic stack actuator. In order to set and monitor the
DC offset of the amplifier, a voltage meter was used ensuring the stack actuator was not overloaded. To display
and store the response waveforms, a four-channel LeCroy
Waverunner LT264, 350, MHz, 1 GS/s digital oscilloscope was used.


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679

Experimental procedure Lamb waves

Fig. 9 Photograph for the 51.8 mm crack after 675 800 fatigue
cycles.

The five-cycle burst signal was used to excite the piezoceramic actuator A. The Haning window enveloped was
used. The peak-to-peak amplitude of the wave was equal
to 10 V. The frequency of the signal was equal to 75 kHz.
Following the aluminium dispersion curve in Fig. 2, this
frequency was chosen to obtain the so-called single Lamb
wave mode propagation. The frequency was selected experimentally to maximize the amplitude of the A 0 mode
and minimize to negligible levels the amplitude of the S 0
mode. The selected Lamb wave frequency was relatively
closed to the frequency of the ultrasonic wave used in
the nonlinear acoustic tests. Lamb wave responses were
sensed by the piezoceramic sensor B.
CRACK DETECTION RESULTS

Experimental procedure nonlinear acoustics

The nonlinear acoustic technique was applied for different damage severities. The tests were performed for free
boundary conditions; the specimen was freely suspended.
The ultrasonic continuous sine wave was introduced to
the plate using the piezoceramic actuator A. The excitation frequency of 60 kHz was selected at a peak-to-peak
amplitude of 10 V based on previous studies.27 The specimen was simultaneously vibrated with the low-frequency
sine wave introduced by the piezoceramic stack actuator.
The low-frequency excitation signal was a continuous sine
wave of 118 Hz, selected in the previous section. The
peak-to-peak amplitude of the vibration signal was equal
to 20 V. The acoustic responses were sensed using the
piezoceramic sensor B.
Several sets of data were taken before crack initiation
and once the crack was observed data were taken every
2 mm of crack propagation. The power spectrum for all
data sets was obtained using the oscilloscope. The spectra
were zoomed on the fundamental harmonic of acoustic
wave.

Nonlinear acoustics
Figure 11 shows examples of power spectra for three different damage conditions. Here, the right column demonstrates the spectra that were obtained for the acoustic
responses gathered in the presence of the low-frequency
vibration signal. Similar spectra for the acoustic responses
obtained when the plate was not vibrated (i.e. the amplitude level of the low-frequency vibration was equal to
0 V) are given in the left column for comparison. The
ultrasonic carrier frequency of 60 kHz can be observed
in all presented spectra. A pattern of sidebands around
the carrier frequency can be seen in Fig. 11b and c additionally when the 1mm and 12 mm cracks were observed
in the plate and the plate was vibrated. The frequency
spacing of these sidebands corresponds to the 118 Hz frequency of the low-frequency vibration excitation. The results in Fig. 11b and c also demonstrate that the number of
sidebands depends on the crack length. Clearly, modulation sidebands indicated the presence of the crack in the
specimen.
Various parameters can be used to analyze the modulation processes resulting from the combined vibro-acoustic

Fig. 10 Experimental set-up for crack

detection tests.


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(a)
20V

-10

-10

-20

-20

Amplitude (dB)

Amplitude (dB)

0V

-30
-40
-50
-60

-40
-50
-60
-70

-70
-80
50000

-30

55000
60000
65000
Frequency (Hz)

-80
50000

70000

55000

60000
65000
Frequency (Hz)

70000

(b)
20V

-10

-10

-20

-20

Amplitude (dB)

Amplitude (dB)

0V

-30
-40
-50
-60

-40
-50
-60
-70

-70
-80
50000

-30

55000
60000
65000
Frequency (Hz)

-80
50000

70000

55000

60000
65000
Frequency (Hz)

70000

(c)
20V
0

-10

-10

-20

-20

-30
-40
-50
-60
-80
50000

55000
60000
65000
Frequency (Hz)

interaction.1022,27 The damage index DI 1 , for all acoustic

responses, was calculated using the intensity of modulation defined as
DI1 =

f
100%
f0

-30
-40
-50
-60
-70

-70

(1)

-80
50000

70000

55000

60000
65000
Frequency (Hz)

70000

1.2
Normalized damage index DI1

Fig. 11 Power spectra of acoustic responses

for crack length equal to: (a) 0 mm (b) 1 mm
(c) 12 mm.

Amplitude (dB)

Amplitude (dB)

0V

0.8
0.6

where f 0 is the carrier (acoustic frequency) and  f is

the frequency bandwidth covering the pattern of modulation sidebands. The intensity of modulation increases
the number and amplitude of sidebands, and the amplitude of the career frequency decreases. This results in
larger values of the damage index. Figure 12 presents
normalized damage index results plotted versus fatigue
cycles.
Lamb waves
Figure 13 gives examples of the Lamb wave responses
obtained for the undamaged specimen and after 535 000
fatigue cycles (crack length 1 mm). The responses for
these two damage conditions are different. The first wave

0.4
0.2
0
0

2e+05

4e+05
Fatigue cycles

6e+05

Fig. 12 Normalized damage index DI 1 .

package is the incident wave. Other wave packages include

reflections from various boundaries. The response for the
cracked specimen includes additionally the wave package
reflected from fatigue damage. This study does not aim
to identify all these wave packages.


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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NONLINEAR ACOUSTIC AND LAMB WAVE TECHNIQUES

DI2 = 

Rxy
Rxx Ryy

(2)

where
Rxy ( ) =

1.2
Normalized damage index DI2

There are several signal features that can be used to describe the severity of damage that the Lamb wave analysis
detects.1 This study utilizes the damage index based on
the frequency of the Lamb wave response in order to
be compatible with the nonlinear acoustics analysis. The
damage index DI 2 used was defined as

681

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

1
T

T/2
x(t)y(t + )d t,

(3)

2e+05

T/2

is the cross-correlation function between the x(t) reference Lamb wave response representing the no damage
condition (i.e. the first measurement taken before the
specimen was fatigue cycled) and the y(t) actual Lamb
wave response and R xx , R yy are relevant autocorrelation
functions.
The assumption is that the cross-correlation detects any
alterations in frequency/phase of the analyzed signal that
might be caused by the damage. Equation (1) guarantees that if the frequency/phase of the two compared signals is identical (for no damage condition), the value of
the damage index DI 2 is equal to 0. If however, the frequency/phase is not the same then the cross-correlation
is less than 1 and the damage index increases with the
severity of damage and is normalized between 0 and 1.
Figure 14 presents damage index results plotted versus
fatigue cycles.
Discussion
The results, presented in Figs 12 and 14, were normalized in relation to their values at the severest damage state
to allow for direct comparison. Substantial scatter can
be observed due to the fact that the power spectra and
Lamb wave responses were not averaged. Nevertheless

clear trends can be observed in the behaviour of the analyzed damage indices; damage indices increase with the
number of cycles when the crack is observed.
The damage index DI 1 for the nonlinear acoustics tests
is scattered between 0 and approximately 0.22 for fatigue
cycles less than 300 000. Then the value goes up to 0.3 and
0.35 for 375 000 and 460 000 cycles, respectively. When
the first 1.0 mm crack is observed for 535 000 cycles, the
value of damage index increases to 0.4 and then grows
rapidly with the large scatter.
The first 10 values of damage index (i.e. up to 275 000
fatigue cycles) from the no damage condition (i.e. crack
not present in the specimen) were used to establish the
level of scatter; the mean 0 and standard deviation 0
were calculated. The alarm or warning level was calculated as 0 +4 0 23 to obtain information about possible damage. This alarm level is shown in Fig. 12 as the
straight solid line. Once the damage index reaches the
alarm level, it is assumed that the crack is detected. The
analysis performed shows that 1 mm crack is detected after
535 000 fatigue cycles when the nonlinear acoustic is used
for crack detection. This result can be confirmed by the

(b)
30

20

20

Amplitude [mV]

Amplitude [mV]

(a)

10
0
-10
-20

10
0
-10
-20

0.2
0.4
Time [ms]

0.6

6e+05

Fig. 14 Normalized damage index DI 2 .

30

-30
0

4e+05
Fatigue Cycles

-30
0

0.2
0.4
Time [ms]

Fig. 13 Lamb wave responses for after: (a) 0 fatigue cycles (b) 535 00 fatigue cycles.


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clear pattern of sidebands indicating damage observed in

the power spectrum in Fig. 11b.
The first part of the damage index curve for Lamb wave
analysis, shown in Fig. 14, exhibits different behaviour to
the results presented for the nonlinear acoustics. With the
exception of the first point (0 cycles), the curve increases
almost linearly up to 550 000 cycles and then rapidly goes
up. This initial settling-in period in the characteristics
needs further investigations. However, it is quite common, for example, in condition monitoring that vibrationbased parameters used to detect faults in rotating machinery increase initially for new machines before reaching
settled values.32 The trend of the second part of the damage index shown in Fig. 14 is very similar to the nonlinear
acoustic index. The value of DI 2 increases to 0.42 and 0.5
for 375 000 and 460 000 cycles, respectively. This value
reaches 0.57 when the first 1 mm crack is observed for
535 000 cycles.
It is quite difficult to establish the alarm level for the
trend presented in Fig. 14 due to the initial settling in
period of the characteristics. Further studies are required
to establish relevant statistics. The interesting observation
is that damage indices from the data obtained for 1, 2, 5,
6.5 and 9 mm between 535 000 and 600 000 fatigue cycles
remain very similar and oscillates around DI 2 = 0.57. The
index starts growing rapidly after 610 000 fatigue cycles
when the crack length exceeds 12 mm.
The advantage of the nonlinear acoustics over the Lamb
wave inspection for the case investigated is that, when
the low-frequency vibration was not applied to the plate
(the amplitude of the low-frequency vibration signal was
equal to 0 V), equivalent power spectra exhibited only the
acoustic carrier frequency, that is, sidebands were not observed. This clearly indicates that baseline measurements
representing no damage condition would not be needed to
detect cracks.

CONCLUSIONS

Fatigue testing was performed to initiate and propagate a

crack in the aluminium plate. The nonlinear acoustics and
Lamb wave-based inspection were then used for fatigue
crack detection and monitoring. Both methods utilized
low-profile piezoceramic transducers for actuating and
sensing.
For the case investigated, these initial studies indicate
that the nonlinear acoustic method has the ability to detect
fatigue cracks of the same order as the Lamb wave-based
method. The crack detection results for the nonlinear
acoustics have been supported by the simple statistical
analysis.
It was very difficult to establish the sensitivity of crack
detection for the Lamb wave inspection in the case inves-

tigated. Although, the smallest crack observed was manifested by the steady increase of damage index applied,
statistical analysis could not be used to support damage
detection. This is due to the settling-in period observed
for the damage index representing the no damage condition. Additionally, the value of damage index, reached for
the smallest crack observed, stayed relatively unchanged
until the crack length reached 12 mm.
Further investigations are required to confirm the findings. The study should investigate various parameters
used for damage detection including amplitude and frequency of ultrasonic (acoustic and Lamb wave) and vibration excitation and signal features used to detect cracks.
The effect transducer position and signal averaging in
the time and frequency domain should also be investigated. More statistical tests of the undamaged data need
to be performed to establish appropriate confidence levels for damage parameters indicating cracks. In practical
applications, it is also important to use more efficient
piezoelectric-based low-frequency excitation method in
nonlinear acoustics Clamped and/or blocked condition
of the actuator with a counter-mass used would certainly
increased the strain level applied.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mr. John Goodliffe and
Mr. Richard Kay from Sheffield University for technical
assistance in fatigue analysis.
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c 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation 
c 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 31, 674683