Mathematical modeling of Lamb wave

scattering for structural health monitoring

N. D. Dushyanth, M. N. Suma &

Mrityunjaya V. Latte

Journal of Civil Structural Health

Monitoring

ISSN 2190-5452
Volume 5
Number 5

J Civil Struct Health Monit (2015)

5:743-749
DOI 10.1007/s13349-015-0142-7

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J Civil Struct Health Monit (2015) 5:743–749
DOI 10.1007/s13349-015-0142-7
ORIGINAL PAPER
Mathematical modeling of Lamb wave scattering for structural
health monitoring
N. D. Dushyanth1 • M. N. Suma1 • Mrityunjaya V. Latte2
Received: 9 March 2015 / Revised: 12 September 2015 / Accepted: 13 September 2015 / Published online: 2 November 2015
 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract The ability to estimate and suppress part of the
reflected energy from the structural boundaries in the
received signal to obtain the reflections solely due to damage
is explored. When the ultrasound transducer transmits a pulse
into the structure to be interrogated, a reflected wave from the
structural boundaries and/or damage is detected by the
ultrasound receiver. In typical Lamb wave simulation prac-
tices, with a view to simplify the wave signal interpretations,
effects of structural boundary reflections are often not con-
sidered. Although such Lamb wave simulation practices are
effective in case of infinite plates, the same method is inap-
plicable in case of finite plates, because the effect of structural
boundaries causes intricacies especially for transient response
simulations. In this paper, a specific statistical method is used
to model the reflections from structural boundaries. Indeed,
this modeling is efficient in case of finite plates. Such a
modeling can also be used to examine and suppress part of the
reflected energy from the structural boundaries in received
signal to procure the signal containing the reflections only due
to damage. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated in
both simulation and experimental tests on an 6061 aluminum
plate with dimensions 300 mm 9 300 mm 9 3 mm. The
tests yield considerable improvement in the accuracy of
estimating the position of the flaw.
& N. D. Dushyanth
dushyanth_crp@rediffmail.com
M. N. Suma
mn.suma@jainuniversity.ac.in
Mrityunjaya V. Latte
mvlatte@rediffmail.com
1
School of Engineering and Technology, Jain University,
Bangalore, India
2
JSS Academy of Technical Education, Bangalore, India
Keywords Lamb wave scattering  Structural health
monitoring  Ultrasonic waves  NDT  Lamb wave  Signal
processing
1 Introduction
In case of active health monitoring, a lamb wave signal is
excited in a plate at one point. Sensors located at another
point collocate these signals, which in turn are used to
ascertain the condition of the structure [1, 2]. The received
signal consists of direct transmitted signal and the signal
reflected from structural boundaries, if the structure is uni-
form. In the presence of any damage in the structure, the
received signal consists of direct transmitted signal, signal
reflected from structural boundaries and also signals reflected
from damage, which appears as the presence of an additional
echo scattered or reflected from the damage site [3, 4].
On the other hand, theoretical analysis of Lamb wave
reflection and transmission (or scattering) at the point of
discontinuity in the structure is extremely difficult because
of the complex multi-mode conversion phenomena [5].
This could be challenging when wave propagation
becomes dispersive. Even if specific low-dispersive modes
are injected in the structure using selective actuators and
sensors, mode conversion at discontinuities might generate
dispersive modes which superimpose with the targeted
modes [6, 7]. For a structure of realistic geometrical
complexity, the recorded signals become too complex for
specific echoes to be readily identified, especially small
echoes typical of those scattered from damage; therefore,
this approach to damage detection breaks down.
Modeling of Lamb-wave from damage has been inves-
tigated analytically and numerically using various plate
wave theories. Many researchers have tried to find solution
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for Lamb wave scattering problems using numerical

methods. Kudela et al. [8] present numerical simulation of
the propagation of transverse elastic waves corresponding
to the A0 mode of Lamb waves in a composite plate. The
problem is solved using the Spectral Element Method.
Galan and Abascal [9] presented a finite-element for-
mulation to model the Lamb wave scattering in homoge-
neous and sandwich plates. An absorbing boundary
condition for semi-finite is derived to study the wave
reflection by simple obstacles. Liu and Jerry [10] presented
a finite-element method for analyzing wave propagation
using a non-reflecting boundary.
In typical Lamb wave simulation practices, with a view
to simplify the wave signal interpretations, effects of
structural boundary reflections are often not considered.
Fig. 1 Position of sensors on the plate
In most of the methods, the plate is modeled as an infinite
plate. In the finite-element (FE) method, such infinite
boundaries would require special infinite elements to avoid where v(t) is a zero-mean Gaussian stationary noise
the Lamb wave reflection from the plate boundaries. A 3ln10
D¼ ð3Þ
simpler solution in FE would be to model the plate as large as Tr
possible to avoid reflections. But this results in higher com-
Tr is the time taken for reflections to reach the sensor:
putational costs. However, when the effect of plate boundary Z t
reflections is required, i.e. for comparison with experimental
sðtÞ ¼ eDt xðsÞvðt  sÞeDs ds ð4Þ
results, it is not easy to include such boundary effects. 1
In the following, a novel statistical method is used to
Since h(t) is causal, then, if x and v are considered to be
model the reflections from plate edges. This modeling can
independent random processes, the autocorrelation of s at time t
in turn be used to estimate and suppress part of the reflected
is
energy from the plate edges in received signal so that signal Z t R tþs 0
contains the reflections only due to damage. This model E½sðtÞsðt þ kÞ ¼ e2Dt 1 E ½xðsÞxðs Þ
leads to an equation linking the power spectral density 1
(PSD) of the reflected part of the signal to that of the 0
E½vðt  sÞvðt þ k  s Þ  eDðsþs kÞ dsds0
0
ð5Þ
received signal.
Since v is considered to be white noise of power r2w [10]
E½vðt  sÞvðt þ k  s0 Þ ¼ r2w dðs þ s0 þ kÞ; ð6Þ
2 Model for the reflected signal
where d() represents the Dirac function. Equation (5) leads to
In active health monitoring, a Lamb wave signal is excited Z t
E½xðsÞxðt þ kÞ 2 2Dt
in a plate with a central frequency, xo, on one side of the E½sðtÞsðt þ kÞ ¼ e2Dt rw e ds
1
plate and the sensors are located on the other side used to
garner the reflected signals, as shown in Fig. 1. Such Let us now consider the autocorrelation of s at a later
reflections can be modeled as an output of a filter. time
Let us consider x(t) to be the applied signal at actuator t þ T : A ¼ E½sðt þ TÞ sðt þ T þ kÞ
and s(t) to be the signal received at the sensor; s(t) can be Z tþT
represented as convolution of x(t) by h(t) A ¼ e2Dðt þ TÞ E½xðsÞ xðs þ kÞr2w e2Dt ds
Z þ1 1
sðtÞ ¼ xðsÞhðt  sÞds; ð1Þ Z t
1 ¼ e2DT e2Dt E½xðsÞ xðs þ kÞr2w e2Dt ds ð7Þ
1
where h(t) is the impulse response of the homogeneous Z tþT
structure. þ e2Dðt þ TÞ E½xðsÞ xðs þ kÞr2w e2Dt ds
8 1
< vðtÞeDt if 0  t\T
The autocorrelation of s at time t ? T is the sum of two
hr ðtÞ ¼ ð2Þ
: terms. The first term depends on the reflected signal and the
0 for t\0
second depends on the applied signal between t and

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t ? T. The first term over the time interval t and t ? T is So it is always necessary to evaluate the optimum element
entirely due to the reflected signal present at prior to t. length for correct solution along with the lesser computa-
Now h(t) can be split into two parts, i.e. hd(t) and hr(t) tional efforts. In this work the mesh was generated with
for directly received signal and reflected signal, application of free meshing feature provided in COMSOL,
respectively where a mesh is generated automatically with the triangular
elements. The elements considered are said to be uniform.

hðtÞ if 0  t  T In this proposed work the maximum mesh size is set to
hd ðtÞ ¼
0 Otherwise 20 mm to ensure accuracy. Besides, the damage zone is
 more densely meshed, with much smaller elements and its
hðtÞ tT
hr ðtÞ ¼
0 Otherwise
Let Sd(t) be the result of convolution of x(t) and hd(t) and
Sr(t) be the result of convolution of x(t) and hr(t). If T is
relatively much smaller compared to Tr, Sd(t) is made up of
the direct signal and a few early reflections. As a first
approximation, it can be considered as being the direct
signal, whereas Sr(t) corresponds to all the later reflections.
Therefore, Eq. 6 can be written as
E½sðtÞ sðt þ kÞ ¼ E½sr ðtÞ sr ðt þ kÞ þ ½sd ðtÞ sd ðt þ kÞ
E½sr ðtÞsr ðt þ kÞ ¼ e2DT  E½sðt  TÞ  ðt  T þ kÞ ð8Þ
Short-term power spectral densities of these equations
are [11]
css ðt; f Þ ¼ csrsr ðt; f Þ þ csdsd ðt; f Þ
Fig. 2 Mesh created with the triangular elements
csrsr ðt; f Þ ¼ e2DT css ðt  T; f Þ ð9Þ

3 Results and discussions

3.1 Simulation details

In applications of guided wave technique for non-destruc-

tive testing and evaluation, it is necessary to have knowl-
edge of interactions between guided waves and defects for
clear understanding and further analyzing the detected
signal. Since it is complicated and varies greatly with
defect, it is difficult to get the analytical solution of scat-
Fig. 3 Input displacement pulse as source excitation
tering field. Therefore, in this case, the solution of acoustic
field is preferred to be obtained with numerical tools. This
section presents the finite element method (FEM) simula-
tion of ultrasonic wave propagation in isotropic solid media
using COMSOL.
The material chosen is Aluminum plate having Young’s
Modulus (E) = 69 GPa, Poisson’s ratio = 0.33 and den-
sity = 2700 kg/m3 with dimensions 300 mm square with
3 mm thickness.
The length of element in the mesh used for the solution
of any FEM model plays a crucial role for correctness of
the obtained solution. The length of the element needs to be
smaller for evaluation of proper solution, but as the length
of the element decreases the cost of computation increases. Fig. 4 Input signal in frequency domain

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mesh size is set to 0.5 mm to fit the circle shape, the
procured mesh obtained is as shown in Fig. 2.
Modeling the transducers as point sources, eight points
are located as shown in Fig. 1. Sound Hard Boundary
condition is applied along four sides of the plate, which
ensures the normal acceleration to the boundary to be zero.
Fig. 5 Snapshot of the wave propagation in plate
Fig. 6 a Signal from structure
without flaw. b Signal from
structure with flaw
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A 250-kHz frequency signal has been applied to the
isotropic material. The signal is chosen as the five cycles of
sine function and is operated with a hanning window. The
time domain representation of input displacement pulse
used in the model is shown in the Fig. 3. The frequency
content obtained using Fourier transform of the time
domain signal is shown in Fig. 4.
During simulation, damage is introduced cumulatively
in the same aluminum plate specimen at different locations
and the size of the damage is varied from 10 to 1 mm. All
the damages are successfully detected and their position
determined by the current inspection system.
Figure 5 shows the snapshots of the wave propagation in
aluminum plate.
3.2 Experimental details
Aluminium plate of size 300 mm 9 300 mm 9 3 mm
with an array of 8 PZT is shown in Fig. 1. The distance
between transducers is 80 mm. Initially, the structural
condition of the plate is undamaged; this condition of the
plate is considered to be the baseline condition for the
remaining experiments. Consequently, a damage of 5 mm
diameter hole at a location (251, 65 mm) is introduced.
Transducers are triggered using Supertex MD1213; these
signals are received by another set of transducers and the
output obtained is connected to the digitizer PXI-5105. In
this process, one transducer is excited at a time and signals
are recorded from another set of 4. Totally 16 signals are
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Fig. 7 a Echoed signal due to

damage extracted when base
line signal directly subtracted
from the received signal.
b Echoed signal due to damage
extracted using spectral
subtraction

recorded with transmitter receiver pairs (1 ? 1, 1 ? 2,

1 ? 3, 1 ? 4, 2 ? 1, 2 ? 2, 2 ? 3, 2 ? 4,3 ? 1,
3 ? 2, 3 ? 3, 3 ? 4, 4 ? 1, 4 ? 2, 4 ? 3, 4 ? 4).
The signal received by receiver1 when transmitter1 is
excited is shown in Fig. 6. Figure 6a shown below reveals
the measured signal from a plate without any damage.
Figure 6b indicates the received signal from a plate with a
hole of 5 mm diameter.

3.3 Signal processing and damage diagnosis

The acquired raw signals can hardly be used directly for the
diagnosis, because along with the structural condition
information they contain diverse bandwidth noise. Wavelet
transform-based time–frequency spectro-graphic analyses
are employed to extract the useful diagnostic information
[12]. In this study, both the discrete wavelet transform
(DWT) analysis and continuous wavelet transform (CWT)
analysis are performed for the signal processing to effec-
tively diminish the influence of broadband noise.
Let fij(n) and nfij(n) be the discrete-time signals received Fig. 8 Image constructed using the signal from direct subtraction
method
from the plates with damage and without damage, respectively.

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Fig. 9 Images constructed after the 5 mm diameter hole created at (a) position 1 (255, 65), (b) position 2 (200, 105) and (c) position 3 (225, 185)
using the signal from spectral subtraction method

The power spectral density of the fij(n) received signal is overlap-add technique as shown in Fig. 7b. The difference
estimated. The square root of this estimate is then subtracted signal exhibiting base line signal directly subtracted from the
from the amplitude spectrum of the nfij(n) signal yielding an received signal is shown in Fig. 7a.
estimate of the amplitude spectrum of the reflected signal due Spatially distributed image from each difference signal
to damage alone, Eq. (9). In practice, this is realized by a short- is computed using Eq. (10):
term spectral attenuation, equivalent to spectral subtraction. X
k  
The reflected signal due to damage alone is then reconstructed pij ðx; yÞ ¼ dfij ðtij ðx; yÞÞ ð10Þ
from its estimated amplitude spectrum and phase using p¼1

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where p(x, y)—pixel intensity at location (x, y) and dfij = is
the difference signal from ith actuator and jth receiver as
shown in Fig. 7b. tij is time of arrival of the reflected signal
from damage as obtained from Fig. 7b.
dij
tij ¼ toff þ
cg
cg = group velocity
K—Total number of windowed signal samples
dij = (ri ? rj)
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ri ¼ ðxi  xÞ2 þ ðyi  yÞ2 ð11Þ
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
rj ¼ ðxj  xÞ2 þ ðyj  yÞ2 ð12Þ
(xi, yi)—position of ith transmitter (xj, yj)—Position of jth
receiver toff—offset time ri = distance between image
pixel (x, y) and transmitter i rj = distance between image
pixel (x, y) and receiver j
By superimposing the image obtained from individual
actuator sensor pair signal, an ultimate image posing the
damage is obtained as given in the following equation:
N N
X
2 X
2 dimensional spatial fusion technique for imaging of damages in
Pðx; yÞ ¼ A pij ðx; yÞ; ð13Þ
i¼1 j¼1
where P(x, y) is the pixel intensity at location (x, y) in the
final image and
A is the gain factor.
Images constructed using the signal from direct sub-
traction method and spectral subtraction method are as
shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. The position of the
damage depicted has been shown clearly in Fig. 9, whereas
there is little, if any, evidence of the hole as seen in Fig. 8.
During conduction of experiments, the damage is created at
different locations cumulatively in the same aluminum
plate specimen. All damages are well detected and their
position determined by the current inspection system as
shown in Fig. 9.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, a specific statistical method is used to provide
a theoretical basis of interpretation for experimental
results.
749
The conducted analyses lead to the following
conclusions:
• Even though the plate itself is geometrically simple, it
is complex from a wave propagation standpoint.
• Because of the strong multiple reflections and multiple
Lamb wave modes, these results are significant because
they demonstrate effective damage detection, localiza-
tion and characterization.
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