A numerical approach for the investigation of guided-waves propagation mechanisms in reinforced polymers through a doe analysis

Thanks to their high damage detection sensitivity and low requested power consumption, guided-waves (Lamb waves) have been increasingly used in the last years to monitor the structural integrity in primary and secondary composite structures. The monitoring of the structural health through the propagation of Lamb waves in composite structures is notoriously complex and, for this reason, the development of a prediction model can be a helpful tool for the improvement of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. Finite Element Method (FE) appears to be the best candidate for such type of simulation. However, since Lamb waves propagation depends strictly on the local material properties of the medium they propagate through, their numerical characterization is a thorny phase. Real composite components are usually affected by the presence of a large number of voids and defects, which cannot be reproduced in numerical models; this leads to a variability of the mechanical properties of materials, with particular reference to elastic moduli and density. These aspects get really ambitious the development of a well-established FE model. In this paper, a design of experiment (DOE) has been carried out to numerically investigate on the effects of the material properties variability on guided-waves time of flight.