A Recursive Legendre Polynomial Analytical Integral Method for the Fast and Efficient Modelling Guided Wave Propagation in Rectangular Section Bars of Orthotropic Materials

Abstract

Ultrasonic guided waves are widely used in non-destructive testing (NDT), and complete guided wave dispersion, including propagating and evanescent modes in a given waveguide, is essential for NDT. Compared with an infinite plate, the finite lateral width of a rectangular bar introduces a greater density of modes, and the dispersion solutions become more complicated. In this study, a recursive Legendre polynomial analytical integral (RLPAI) method is presented to calculate the dispersion behaviours of guided waves in rectangular bars of orthotropic materials. The existing polynomial method involves a large number of numerical integration steps, and it is often computationally costly to compute these integrals. The presented RLPAI method uses analytical integration instead of numerical integration, thus leading to a significant improvement in the computational speed. The results are compared with those published previously to validate our method, and the computational efficiency is discussed. The full three-dimensional dispersion curves are plotted. The dispersion characteristics of propagating and evanescent waves are investigated in various rectangular bars. The influences of different width-to-thickness ratios on the dispersion curves of four types of low-order modes for a rectangular bar of an orthotropic composite are illustrated.