Ultrasonics and Acoustic Wave Propagation

Ultrasonics and acoustic wave propagation research examines how mechanical waves travel through solid materials, with particular attention to how those waves interact with the internal structure of a material and change character when they encounter damage such as cracks, delaminations, or disbonds. In engineering applications, piezoelectric sensors can both generate and receive guided waves — including Lamb waves, which travel along thin plate-like structures — making it possible to continuously monitor the health of aerospace and civil components, especially lightweight composite structures that are otherwise difficult to inspect. A central challenge is extracting reliable damage signals from the inherently complex wave behavior in anisotropic, layered composites, where reflections, mode conversions, and manufacturing variability can obscure subtle indicators of early-stage degradation. Active research directions include exploiting nonlinear acoustic phenomena that are sensitive to incipient damage long before it becomes visible, and scaling sparse sensor arrays into practical, autonomous monitoring systems capable of localizing and characterizing damage in real time under realistic operating conditions.

Works

92,911

Total citations

973,430

Keywords

Guided Lamb WavesPiezoelectric Impedance-Based Health MonitoringUltrasonic ArraysNonlinear Ultrasonic TechniquesComposite StructuresDamage Detection