Barely visible impact damage imaging using non-contact air-coupled transducer/laser Doppler vibrometer system

The aim of this study is to investigate the capability of the zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition of an A₀ Lamb wave mode in imaging a barely visible impact damage in a carbon fiber–reinforced polymer composite using a fully non-contact-guided wave-based non-destructive inspection system. A 16-ply (45/0/-45/90)_2s carbon fiber–reinforced polymer laminate was impacted at three different locations with different impact energies using a drop ball at three drop heights causing three barely visible impact damages with different sizes. The A₀ Lamb wave mode is generated inside the laminate using a circular air-coupled transducer and detected along the damaged region using a laser Doppler vibrometer. The measured wavefield is then decomposed into a forward and backward propagating wavefields by applying a frequency–wavenumber filtering post-processing technique. The decomposed wavefields are then cross-correlated in the frequency domain using zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition producing a detailed cumulative damage image. The images obtained in frequency domain highlight the three damaged areas with higher zero-lag cross-correlation values compared to other parts of the inspected areas. The experimental investigation has shown a good correlation between the zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition and C-scan images, which demonstrate a strong capability of guided wave zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition technique in approximating the location and size of relatively small barely visible impact damages in thin composite structures.