Nonlinear lamb waves in a metal plate with defects

Experimental results on the propagation of finite-amplitude Lamb waves in a solid plate made of polycrystalline aluminum alloy with defects are presented. The Lamb waves are recorded and visualized using a scanning laser vibrometer. The dependences of the higher harmonic amplitudes, both averaged over the plate surface and measured at a point far from the defect and at the site of the defect, on the fundamental frequency amplitude are studied. A threshold character of the higher harmonic generation and a power-law behavior of their amplitudes are revealed, the latter feature being unconventional for the nonlinearity associated with the anharmonicity of the crystal lattice of the material. The possibility of locating the distribution of individual defects from the measured spatial distribution of structural nonlinearity in the material under study is experimentally demonstrated. The results of the experiments are explained in terms of the bilinear medium model.