Damage assessment in composite laminates with the Lamb wave factorization method

This paper proposes a damage assessment approach for composites based on the Lamb wave factorization method. It can exploit both the forward and back-scattering waves and visualize the two-dimensional (2D) defect by solving the inverse scattering problem. When performing the method, a transducer array is firstly adopted, which would take turns to choose one element as the actuator and record the responses using the other transducer elements. On the basis, the scattered waves of defect are then extracted and transformed to the frequency domain to form a transmission-reception matrix. The detection area would be next sampled into numerous points whose pixel values can be determined by calculating the corresponding indicator function using the singular system of the matrix. By visualize the area using all the pixel values, the defect image can be finally obtained. Experiments on different 2D defects are carried out as validations, where both the defect shape and transducer quantity are discussed. Results demonstrates the effectiveness and accuracy of the method for damage assessment in composite laminates.