Philippe Blanloeuil

Application of the noncollinear mixing method to an interface of contact

The non-collinear mixing technique is applied on a contacting interface with friction. Two shear waves are generated with an oblique incidence on the interface of contact. The nonlinear effect of contact is activated and leads to the interaction of the incident waves, which results in the scattering of a longitudinal wave of twice the input frequency. The method is applied experimentally on an interface made of two aluminum solids. The amplitude of the longitudinal wave is obtained as a function of the compressional stress applied on this interface. A Finite Element model is proposed to study this method. The interface is modeled by unilateral contact law with Coulombs friction. This modeling enables to reproduce the generation of the longitudinal wave. The numerical results regarding to the amplitude of the longitudinal wave qualitatively agree with the experimental results.

Modified time reversal imaging of a closed crack based on nonlinear scattering

A recent variant of time reversal imaging is used to detect and characterize a closed crack based on both the fundamental and the second harmonic components of the scattered waves in the presence of Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity at the crack interface. A Finite Element model, which includes unilateral contact with Coulomb friction to account for contact between the crack faces, is used to compute the scattered field resulting from the interaction between incident longitudinal plane waves and the crack. The knowledge of the scattering for multiple incident angles constitutes the input for the imaging algorithm. Good reconstruction of the crack is obtained from both harmonic sources, and second harmonic based images also enables one to identify the location of the second harmonic sources along the crack. This first imaging based on the second harmonic also offers potential baseline free detection of closed cracks.

Particle swarm optimization for optimal sensor placement in ultrasonic SHM systems

A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to improve sensors placement in an ultrasonic Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system where the detection is performed through the beam-forming imaging algorithm. The imaging algorithm reconstructs the defect image and estimates its location based on analytically generated signals, considering circular through hole damage in an aluminum plate as the tested structure. Then, the PSO algorithm changes the position of sensors to improve the accuracy of the detection. Thus, the two algorithms are working together iteratively to optimize the system configuration, taking into account a complete modeling of the SHM system. It is shown that this approach can provide good sensors placements for detection of multiple defects in the target area, and for different numbers of sensors.

Numerical and experimental study of the nonlinear interaction between a shear wave and a frictional interface.

The nonlinear interaction of shear waves with a frictional interface are presented and modeled using simple Coulomb friction. Analytical and finite difference implementations are proposed with both in agreement and showing a unique trend in terms of the generated nonlinearity. A dimensionless parameter ξ is proposed to uniquely quantify the nonlinearity produced. The trends produced in the numerical study are then validated with good agreement experimentally. This is carried out loading an interface between two steel blocks and exciting this interface with different amplitude normal incidence shear waves. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical results, suggesting the simple friction model does a reasonable job of capturing the fundamental physics. The resulting approach offers a potential way to characterize a contacting interface; however, the difficulty in activating that interface may ultimately limit its applicability.

Development of a nonlinear ultrasonic NDE technique for detection of kissing bonds in composites

The development of low-cost bonded assembly of composite aerospace structures ideally requires an NDE method to detect the presence of poor quality, weak bonds or kissing bonds. Such interfaces can introduce nonlinearity as a result of contact nonlinearity where an ultrasonic wave is distorted when it interacts with the interface. In general, the nonlinear elastic behaviour of these interfaces will generate harmonics but they can be lost among the harmonics generated by other nonlinearities present in the experimental system. The technique developed in this research is a non-collinear method; this involves the interaction of two ultrasonic beams, and it allows the removal of virtually all system nonlinearity except for that produced in the region where the two beams overlap. The frequencies of the two beams and the angle between are varied during the experiment. By measuring the nonlinear mixing response as these two parameters are swept through a ‘fingerprint’ of the nonlinear properties in the interaction region can be obtained. This fingerprint has been shown to contain information about the bulk material and the interface status. Work is ongoing to understand which features in the fingerprints reliably correlate with particular material or interface properties. To build this understanding a greatly simplified kissing bond, a compression loaded aluminium-aluminium interface, has been tested. Modelling of the nonlinear behaviour of the aluminium interface has also been conducted.

Ultrasonic Imaging of a Crack Using Modified Time Reversal

A majority of the research in Structural Health Monitoring focuses on detection of damage. This paper presents a method of imaging crack damage in an isotropic material using the Time Reversal imaging algorithm. Inputs for the algorithm are obtained via computational simulation of the propagation field of a crack in a medium under tone-burst excitation. The approach is similar to existing techniques such as Diffraction Tomography which makes use of the multi-static data matrix constructed using scatter field measurements from the computational simulation. Results indicate excellent reconstruction quality and accurate estimation of damage size.

Finite element modeling of the non collinear mixing method for detection and characterization of closed cracks

The non-collinear mixing technique is applied for detection and characterization of closed cracks. The method is based on the nonlinear interaction of two shear waves generated with an oblique incidence. This interaction leads to the scattering of a longitudinal wave. A Finite Element model is used to demonstrate its application to a closed crack. Contact acoustic nonlinearity is the nonlinear effect considered here and is modeled using unilateral contact law with Coulomb’s friction. Directivity patterns are computed using a two-step procedure. The Finite Element (FE) model provides the near-field solution on a circular boundary surrounding the closed crack. The solution in the far-field is then determined assuming that the material has a linear behavior. Directivity patterns will be used to analyze the direction of propagation of longitudinal wave(s) scattered from the closed crack. Numerical results show that the method is effective and promising when applied to a closed crack. Scattering of the longitu...