The ultrasonic wave propagation in composite material and its characteristic evaluation

The use of the ultrasonic wave technology was expected as one of important technologies in health monitoring of composite materials and/or structures. However, the propagation of ultrasonic wave becomes very complicated for polymer based composite materials due to reflection, transmission, dispersion and so on, which may occur on the interface of matrix and reinforcements. Therefore, in this paper, elastic wave motion equation was dispersed using the finite element analysis of the PZFlex code; then the propagation of ultrasonic wave in several model composite materials was simulated. Then, the influence of the fiber/matrix interface shape, fiber size and other fiber conditions on wave propagation behavior was clarified. Moreover, the complicated wave propagation resulting from reflection, transmission and refraction on the fiber/matrix interface was visualized and the influence of the fiber arrangements and fiber volume fraction on the ultrasonic wave behavior was investigated for both conditions with and/or without attenuation in matrix. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.