Hysteretic nonlinearity analysis in damaged composite plates using guided waves.

Sensitivity of nonlinear acoustic methods to the presence and the evolution of micro-damage has been proven in various studies on a wide range of materials. In this contribution, a guided wave approach is proposed to characterize polymer based composite plates taken at intact as well as damaged states. The changes in the nonlinear hysteretic parameters are observed by changing the order of the excited flexural resonances. The analysis is based on the evolution of the velocity frequency dispersion of the generated guided waves, where flexural modes are considered separately and together as a function of the dynamic strain.