Deformation of Bioinspired MXene-Based Polymer Composites with Brick and Mortar Structures: A Computational Analysis.

In this work, the deformation behavior of MXene-based polymer composites with bioinspired brick and mortar structures is analyzed. MXene/Polymer nanocomposites are modeled at microscale for bioinspired configurations of nacre-mimetic brick-and-mortar assembly structure. MXenes (brick) with polymer matrix (mortar) are modeled using classical analytical methods and numerical methods based on finite elements (FE). The analytical methods provide less accurate estimation of elastic properties compared to the numerical one. MXene nanocomposite models analyzed with the FE method provide estimates of elastic constants in the same order of magnitude as literature-reported experimental results. Bioinspired design of MXene nanocomposites results in an effective increase of Young's modulus of the nanocomposite by 25.1% and strength (maximum stress capacity within elastic limits) enhanced by 42.3%. The brick and mortar structure of the nanocomposites leads to an interlocking mechanism between MXene fillers in the polymer matrix, resulting in effective load transfer, good strength, and damage resistance. This is demonstrated in this paper by numerical analysis of MXene nanocomposites subjected to quasi-static loads.

Non-symmetric flexural wave scattering and one-way extreme absorption.

The possibility of asymmetric absorption and reflection for flexural waves is demonstrated through analytical and numerical examples. The emphasis is on the one-dimensional (1D) case of flexural motion of a beam for which combinations of point scatterers are considered, which together provide asymmetric scattering. The scatterers are attached damped oscillators characterized by effective impedances, analogous to effective configurations in 1D acoustic waveguides. By selecting the impedances of a pair of closely spaced scatterers it is shown that it is possible to obtain almost total absorption for incidence on one side, with almost total reflection if incident from the other side. The one-way absorption is illustrated through numerous examples of impedance pairs that satisfy the necessary conditions for zero reflectivity for incidence from one direction. Examples of almost total and zero reflection for different incidences are examined in detail, showing the distinct wave dynamics of flexural waves as compared with acoustics.

Modelling nonlinearity of guided ultrasonic waves in fatigued materials using a nonlinear local interaction simulation approach and a spring model.

Modelling and numerical simulation - based on the framework of the Local Interaction Simulation Approach - was developed to have more insight into nonlinear attributes of guided ultrasonic waves propagating in fatigued metallic materials. Various sources of nonlinearity were considered in this modelling work, with particular emphases on higher-order harmonic generation and accumulation of nonlinearity along wave propagation. The material hyper-elasticity was considered in the model using an energy density approach based on the Landau-Lifshitz formulation; and the "breathing" motion pattern of a fatigue crack in the material was interrogated using a spring model. Upon the successful validation with the model prepared in the commercial software based on the Finite Element Methods, two scenarios were comparatively investigated, i.e. the lower and higher frequency regime. In the first case propagation of a basic symmetric mode pair was simulated using the model to observe a cumulative characteristic of the second harmonic mode with nonlinear hyper-elastic material definition upon appropriate selection of excitation frequency. In the second case, the higher-order symmetric mode pair was excited according to the "internal resonance" conditions, revealing a strong dependence of manifested nonlinearity on numerical parameters. Moreover, it was shown that with the use of the wave from the low frequency regime it was easier to differentiate later stages of the crack development, being in contrary to waves in the high frequency regime, which allowed to clearly observe early stages of the crack expansion. Such outcome lays the foundation to develop the damage detection and monitoring scheme in the field of Structural Health Monitoring based on utilising the nonlinear features of guided ultrasonic waves.

Acoustic source localization in an anisotropic plate without knowing its material properties - A new approach.

Acoustic source localization (ASL) in a highly anisotropic plate is a challenging task. The basic assumption in many of the currently available techniques is that the wave propagates along a straight line from the source to the receiving sensor. However, waves in anisotropic solids propagate along curved lines and form non-circular wave fronts. As a result, for a highly anisotropic solid the acoustic source localization techniques that assume straight line propagation of waves from the source to the receiver are bound to produce a significant error. In this paper a new technique is introduced for acoustic source localization in an anisotropic plate by dealing with non-circular shape of wave fronts. Direction vectors of the wave fronts are computed from the Time-Difference-Of-Arrivals (TDOA) at three sensors placed in a cluster, then they are cast into a geometric vector analysis or an optimization process to accurately obtain the acoustic source location. Two common wave front shapes in highly anisotropic plates, rhombus and ellipse, are analyzed. Following this analysis, the acoustic source could be successfully localized without knowing the material properties of the plate.

Amplitude-dependent Lamb wave dispersion in nonlinear plates.

The paper presents a perturbation approach for calculating amplitude-dependent Lamb wave dispersion in nonlinear plates. Nonlinear dispersion relationships are derived in closed form using a hyperelastic stress-strain constitutive relationship, the Green-Lagrange strain measure, and the partial wave technique integrated with a Lindstedt-Poincaré perturbation approach. Solvability conditions are derived using an operator formalism with inner product projections applied against solutions to the adjoint problem. When applied to the first- and second-order problems, these solvability conditions lead to amplitude-dependent, nonlinear dispersion corrections for frequency as a function of wavenumber. Numerical simulations verify the predicted dispersion shifts for an example nonlinear plate. The analysis and identification of amplitude-dependent, nonlinear Lamb wave dispersion complements recent research focusing on higher harmonic generation and internally resonant waves, which require precise dispersion relationships for frequency-wavenumber matching.

Time-distance domain transformation for Acoustic Emission source localization in thin metallic plates.

Acoustic Emission used in Non-Destructive Testing is focused on analysis of elastic waves propagating in mechanical structures. Then any information carried by generated acoustic waves, further recorded by a set of transducers, allow to determine integrity of these structures. It is clear that material properties and geometry strongly impacts the result. In this paper a method for Acoustic Emission source localization in thin plates is presented. The approach is based on the Time-Distance Domain Transform, that is a wavenumber-frequency mapping technique for precise event localization. The major advantage of the technique is dispersion compensation through a phase-shifting of investigated waveforms in order to acquire the most accurate output, allowing for source-sensor distance estimation using a single transducer. The accuracy and robustness of the above process are also investigated. This includes the study of Young's modulus value and numerical parameters influence on damage detection. By merging the Time-Distance Domain Transform with an optimal distance selection technique, an identification-localization algorithm is achieved. The method is investigated analytically, numerically and experimentally. The latter involves both laboratory and large scale industrial tests.

Generalized semi-analytical finite difference method for dispersion curves calculation and numerical dispersion analysis for Lamb waves.

The paper presents an efficient and accurate method for dispersion curve calculation and analysis of numerical models for guided waves. The method can be used for any arbitrarily selected anisotropic material. The proposed approach utilizes the wave equation and through-thickness-only discretization of anisotropic, layered plates to obtain the Lamb wave characteristics. Thus, layered structures, such as composites, can be analyzed in a straightforward manner. A general framework for the proposed analysis is given, along with application examples. Although these examples are based on the local interaction simulation approach for elastic waves propagation, the proposed methodology can be easily adopted for other methods (e.g., finite elements). The method can be also used to study the influence of discretization parameters on dispersion curves estimates.