Imaging of Multiple Cracks in Thin Plates using Circular Sensor Array Based on Lamb Waves

Crack imaging is attractive in the community of nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring of plate-like structures. However, most existing research focuses on the imaging of single crack, while limited work has been reported for the imaging of multiple cracks. To this end, the application of the Lamb wave-based technique is presented in this paper to image the multiple cracks. The antisymmetric mode ( A 0) of Lamb wave propagation in the thin plate is simulated using the numerical finite element method, and a circular piezoelectric sensor array is considered to capture the Lamb wave signals. The damage index taking into account the attenuation of the reflected signal amplitude is proposed using the reflection signals from the cracks, and the Hilbert transform is used to extract the information of damage. The damage scanning map is constructed to show the damage location in the plate. The proposed damage identification algorithm based on Lamb wave propagation is also used to detect two cracks in the thin plates. The consideration of wave attenuation improves the identification of multiple cracks. The proposed damage identification algorithm using a phased piezoelectric sensor array shows its potential to locate the cracks in thin plates.