Simulation of Microdamage Depth Profiling Using Nonlinear Rayleigh Wave Propagation in Media with Stratified Hysteretic Nonlinearity

Abstract

The examination of near‐surface deterioration is of high importance in quality assessment applications such as the in situ characterization of environmental degradation of natural building stones in historical buildings, and the detection of surface breaking cracks in metal and composite constructions used in aeronautics. In this paper, we report on numerical experiments of Rayleigh wave propagation along the surface of a microcracked solid. Using a multiscale model, we investigate the influence of a microdamaged zone on the surface wave velocity, and on the generation of harmonics. We found that the nonlinear measures are far more sensitive in assessing microdamage than the linear characteristics. We illustrate this with a comparison of the results for linear and nonlinear depth profiling techniques by evaluating the linear and nonlinear response for excitation signals at different frequencies in the case of a stratified medium with spatially varying hysteresis properties.