Viscoelastic rheological models for guided acoustic waves: Single mode at high frequency and second harmonic generation of Lamb and SH modes

Abstract

The previous published work by Othmani et al. invites a further useful discussion on how the viscoelastic rheological model affects the second harmonic and single modes of guided waves. However, this paper has two main objectives. The first objective is to establish a simple relationship between the Rayleigh waves velocity (VR), fundamental Lamb modes (A0 and S0), and the shear wave velocity (VS) in unidirectional viscoelastic carbon–epoxy at high frequency. The second objective is to study the second harmonic Lamb modes. Numerical codes based on Legendre polynomial and Newton–Raphson methods are developed and implemented to predict dispersion and attenuation curves. The second harmonic generation was investigated with the hysteretic and Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic models. Results showed that rheological models have a much larger effect on the attenuation curves than the ones on the dispersion trajectories. Additionally, the optimal angles of Lamb and SH modes in unidirectional carbon–epoxy under Snell‐Descartes law was investigated. The present numerical results may render as a useful message for the rheological community.