Spectral element method for modeling lamb wave interaction with open and closed crack

Abstract

Lamb wave-based structural health monitoring is one of the most widely used damage detection techniques. For quantitatively identifying the damage, damage features that Lamb waves carry may need to be carefully studied by numerical simulation. In this paper, spectral element method (SEM) is used to simulate Lamb wave interaction with open and closed crack. Cracked spectral element models are established for open and closed cracks, respectively. Results calculated by SEM are compared with the conventional finite element method to verify the proposed model. Some simulations are conducted to study different damage features between open and closed crack models. Wave reflection and transmission ratios with different crack depths are also quantitatively analyzed. Damage features obtained are used to conduct a simple experiment to identify the location and size of the crack.