Observation of Piezoelectrically Induced Lamb Wave Propagation in Thin Plates by Use of Speckle Interferometry

Abstract

Lamb waves have shown to be favorably applicable in the development of health monitoring systems in structural mechanics since they show reflections, refractions, as well as mode conversions at fault locations. For the observation of the wave propagation, the double pulsed electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) as a high precision, full-field, and non-contact measurement technique is under investigation in this work. First, it is shown that symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb waves can be captured in a faultless plate. Moreover, mode conversions are observed at stiffness discontinuities in a specially prepared plate. Finally, a riveted lightweight structure is under investigation. In these experiments, mode conversions indicate the location of the rivets.