Hauke Gravenkamp

Simulation of elastic guided waves interacting with defects in arbitrarily long structures using the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method

In this paper, an approach is presented to model the propagation of elastic waves and their interaction with defects in plate structures. The formulation is based on the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM), a general semi-analytical method requiring the discretization of boundaries only. For a homogeneous finite or infinite plate section, only the through-thickness direction of the plate is discretized. To describe a defect, the full boundary of a short plate section of irregular shape is discretized. High-order spectral elements are employed for the discretization. The formulation for infinite plates can model the transmission into an unbounded domain exactly. Results are compared with conventional Finite Element Analyses in both time domain and frequency domain. The presented approach allows for the simulation of complex reflection and scattering phenomena using a very small number of degrees of freedom while the mesh consists of one-dimensional elements only.

The computation of dispersion relations for axisymmetric waveguides using the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method

This paper addresses the computation of dispersion curves and mode shapes of elastic guided waves in axisymmetric waveguides. The approach is based on a Scaled Boundary Finite Element formulation, that has previously been presented for plate structures and general three-dimensional waveguides with complex cross-section. The formulation leads to a Hamiltonian eigenvalue problem for the computation of wavenumbers and displacement amplitudes, that can be solved very efficiently. In the axisymmetric representation, only the radial direction in a cylindrical coordinate system has to be discretized, while the circumferential direction as well as the direction of propagation are described analytically. It is demonstrated, how the computational costs can drastically be reduced by employing spectral elements of extremely high order. Additionally, an alternative formulation is presented, that leads to real coefficient matrices. It is discussed, how these two approaches affect the computational efficiency, depending on the elasticity matrix. In the case of solid cylinders, the singularity of the governing equations that occurs in the center of the cross-section is avoided by changing the quadrature scheme. Numerical examples show the applicability of the approach to homogeneous as well as layered structures with isotropic or anisotropic material behavior.

Computation of dispersion curves for embedded waveguides using a dashpot boundary condition

In this paper a numerical approach is presented to compute dispersion curves for solid waveguides coupled to an infinite medium. The derivation is based on the scaled boundary finite element method that has been developed previously for waveguides with stress-free surfaces. The effect of the surrounding medium is accounted for by introducing a dashpot boundary condition at the interface between the waveguide and the adjoining medium. The damping coefficients are derived from the acoustic impedances of the surrounding medium. Results are validated using an improved implementation of an absorbing region. Since no discretization of the surrounding medium is required for the dashpot approach, the required number of degrees of freedom is typically 10 to 50 times smaller compared to the absorbing region. When compared to other finite element based results presented in the literature, the number of degrees of freedom can be reduced by as much as a factor of 4000.

The simulation of Lamb waves in a cracked plate using the scaled boundary finite element method

The scaled boundary finite element method is applied to the simulation of Lamb waves for ultrasonic testing applications. With this method, the general elastodynamic problem is solved, while only the boundary of the domain under consideration has to be discretized. The reflection of the fundamental Lamb wave modes from cracks of different geometry in a steel plate is modeled. A test problem is compared with commercial finite element software, showing the efficiency and convergence of the scaled boundary finite element method. A special formulation of this method is utilized to calculate dispersion relations for plate structures. For the discretization of the boundary, higher-order elements are employed to improve the efficiency of the simulations. The simplicity of mesh generation of a cracked plate for a scaled boundary finite element analysis is illustrated.

Numerical simulation of ultrasonic guided waves using the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method

The formulation of the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method is applied for the computation of dispersion properties of ultrasonic guided waves. The cross-section of the waveguide is discretized in the Finite Element sense, while the direction of propagation is described analytically. A standard eigenvalue problem is derived to compute the wave numbers of propagating modes. This paper focuses on cylindrical waveguides, where only a straight line has to be discretized. Higher-order elements are utilized for the discretization. As examples, dispersion curves are computed for a homogeneous pipe and a layered cylinder.

Transient modeling of ultrasonic guided waves in circular viscoelastic waveguides for inverse material characterization

In this contribution, we present an efficient approach for the transient and time-causal modeling of guided waves in viscoelastic cylindrical waveguides in the context of ultrasonic material characterization. We use the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) for efficient computation of the phase velocity dispersion. Regarding the viscoelastic behavior of the materials under consideration, we propose a decomposition approach that considers the real-valued frequency dependence of the (visco-)elastic moduli and, separately, of their attenuation. The modal expansion approach is utilized to take the transmitting and receiving transducers into account and to propagate the excited waveguide modes through a waveguide of finite length. The effectiveness of the proposed simulation model is shown by comparison with a standard transient FEM simulation as well as simulation results based on the exact solution of the complex-valued viscoelastic guided wave problem. Two material models are discussed, namely the fractional Zener model and the anti-Zener model; we re-interpret the latter in terms of the Rayleigh damping model. Measurements are taken on a polypropylene sample and the proposed transient simulation model is used for inverse material characterization. The extracted material properties may then be used in computer-aided design of ultrasonic systems.

Effect of Elastic Modulus and Poisson's Ratio on Guided Wave Dispersion Using Transversely Isotropic Material Modelling

Timber poles are commonly used for telecommunication and power distribution networks, wharves or jetties, piling or as a substructure of short span bridges. Most of the available techniques currently used for non-destructive testing (NDT) of timber structures are based on one-dimensional wave theory. If it is essential to detect small sized damage, it becomes necessary to consider guided wave (GW) propagation as the behaviour of different propagating modes cannot be represented by one-dimensional approximations. However, due to the orthotropic material properties of timber, the modelling of guided waves can be complex. No analytical solution can be found for plotting dispersion curves for orthotropic thick cylindrical waveguides even though very few literatures can be found on the theory of GW for anisotropic cylindrical waveguide. In addition, purely numerical approaches are available for solving these curves. In this paper, dispersion curves for orthotropic cylinders are computed using the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) and compared with an isotropic material model to indicate the importance of considering timber as an anisotropic material. Moreover, some simplification is made on orthotropic behaviour of timber to make it transversely isotropic due to the fact that, analytical approaches for transversely isotropic cylinder are widely available in the literature. Also, the applicability of considering timber as a transversely isotropic material is discussed. As an orthotropic material, most material testing results of timber found in the literature include 9 elastic constants (three elastic moduli and six Poissons ratios), hence it is essential to select the appropriate material properties for transversely isotropic material which includes only 5 elastic constants. Therefore, comparison between orthotropic and transversely isotropic material model is also presented in this article to reveal the effect of elastic moduli and Poissons ratios on dispersion curves. Based on this study, some suggestions are proposed on selecting the parameters from an orthotropic model to transversely isotropic condition.

A remark on the computation of shear-horizontal and torsional modes in elastic waveguides.

When modeling the propagation of elastic guided waves in plates or cylinders, Finite Element based numerical methods such as the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM) or the Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) Method lead to an eigenvalue problem to be solved at each frequency. For the particular case of shear horizontal modes in a homogeneous plate or torsional modes in a homogeneous cylinder, the problem can be drastically simplified. The eigenvalues become simple functions of the frequency, while the eigenvectors are constant. The current contribution discusses how this behavior is represented in the numerical formulation and derives the expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenvectors as well as the dynamic stiffness matrix of infinite elastic waveguides.

Computation of dispersion relations for axially symmetric guided waves in cylindrical structures by means of a spectral decomposition method.

In this paper, a method to determine the complex dispersion relations of axially symmetric guided waves in cylindrical structures is presented as an alternative to the currently established numerical procedures. The method is based on a spectral decomposition into eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator on the cross-section of the waveguide. This translates the calculation of real or complex wave numbers at a given frequency into solving an eigenvalue problem. Cylindrical rods and plates are treated as the asymptotic cases of cylindrical structures and used to generalize the method to the case of hollow cylinders. The presented method is superior to direct root-finding algorithms in the sense that no initial guess values are needed to determine the complex wave numbers and that neither starting at low frequencies nor subsequent mode tracking is required. The results obtained with this method are shown to be reasonably close to those calculated by other means and an estimate for the achievable accuracy is given.

Efficient simulation of elastic guided waves interacting with notches, adhesive joints, delaminations and inclined edges in plate structures

HIGHLIGHTSAn approach to model guided wave propagation in plate structures is presented.The interaction of guided waves with notches, edges, delaminations and joints is simulated.Only line elements are reqired to discretize the structures thickness direction.Boundary conditions can be applied on the plate surface without requiring discretization.CPU times are typically reduced by 2–3 orders of magnitude compared to a full finite element discretization. ABSTRACT This paper presents an approach to model transmission and reflection phenomena of elastic guided waves in plates. The formulation is applied to plate structures containing notches, inclined edges, delaminations or (adhesive) joints. For these cases, only the thickness direction of the structure needs to be discretized at several locations, while the direction of propagation is described analytically. Consequently, the number of degrees of freedom is very small. Semi‐infinite domains can be modeled, in which case the radiation condition is fulfilled exactly. Traction boundary conditions are introduced on the plate surface without requiring a mesh along the surface. Results are validated against conventional finite element implementations, showing the accuracy of the proposed approach and a reduction of the computational costs by typically 2–3 orders of magnitude.