Some Experimental Observations on the Detection of Composite Damage using Lamb Waves

This paper deals with the detection of damage in composite plates using Lamb wave scattering from faults and novelty detection. Although previous studies have established the feasibility of the approach, this paper addresses the problem of quantifying the detectable level of damage. In order to accomplish this, two test programmes were conducted. The first tests dealt with the detection of through holes in a composite laminate, while the second series was concerned with detecting internal damage generated by low-velocity impacts. In both cases, the damages were detected successfully; however, the tests raise some issues concerning the stability of the environment of the test and the associated instrumentation, and these issues were investigated further.