Damage imaging of composite structures using multipath scattering Lamb waves

The application prospect of a permanently installed structural health monitoring (SHM) system for composite structural prognosis may be determined by the reliability, cost and the added weight of the system. In this paper, we aim at exploiting information encoded in multipath scattering Lamb wave signals, so that damage imaging could be achieved with as few as possible sensors. Firstly, dispersion compensation is applied to the residual signal between two measurement sequences, and thus the propagation distance of each wave packet could be identified. Assuming that acoustic rays propagate according to Fermat's principle, the multipath scattering between the known features (e.g. edges, stiffeners, lap joints, and rivets) and the damage is equivalent to adding a virtual transducer distributed in a symmetrical position. Thus enlarges the element-number and the aperture of the sensor array. On this basis, a modified elliptical method is established to accommodate for these multipath scattering signals for damage imaging. An experimental example is introduced, where the specimen is a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminate and the damage is simulated by an added mass. The results show that the damage could be correctly detected and accurately localized even with a single transmitter-receiver pair.