Far-end delamination characterization of CFRP laminates using nonlinear ultrasonic spectra of scaling subtracted vibration response

The application of nonlinear ultrasonic techniques for the near-end damage characterization of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) has proven to be successful and extensive. However, the nonlinear ultrasonic response is weak and may be overwhelmed by the linear component of signals if the damage is located at the far-end. In this paper, the scaling subtraction method (SSM) is adopted to filter out the nonlinear ultrasonic signature aimed at the better characterization of far-end delaminations in CFRP laminates. A three-dimensional finite element model is constructed first to validate the feasibility of separation effect of SSM. Then the experimental study is conducted for a delaminated CFRP plate using laser scanning Doppler vibrometer (LSDV) response measurements. Results show that the far-end delamination can be detected and localized clearly since the nonlinear features can be accurately separated from the surface vibration response by using SSM. Moreover, the far-end delamination size is qualitatively analyzed by using the maximum response amplitude (MRA) of the higher harmonics of SSM signals, and a positively correlated trend is shown as the delamination size increases. This work demonstrates the applicability and potential of SSM technique for the comparative assessment of far-end defect information in composites.