A novel nonlinear damage resonance intermodulation effect for structural health monitoring

This paper is aimed at developing a theoretical model able to predict the generation of nonlinear elastic effects associated to the interaction of ultrasonic waves with the steady-state nonlinear response of local defect resonance (LDR). The LDR effect is used in nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy to enhance the excitation of the material damage at its local resonance, thus to dramatically increase the vibrational amplitude of material nonlinear phenomena. The main result of this work is to prove both analytically and experimentally the generation of novel nonlinear elastic wave effects, here named as nonlinear damage resonance intermodulation, which correspond to a nonlinear intermodulation between the driving frequency and the LDR one. Beside this intermodulation effect, other nonlinear elastic wave phenomena such as higher harmonics of the input frequency and superharmonics of LDR frequency were found. The analytical model relies on solving the nonlinear equation of motion governing bending displacement under the assumption of both quadratic and cubic nonlinear defect approximation. Experimental tests on a damaged composite laminate confirmed and validated these predictions and showed that using continuous periodic excitation, the nonlinear structural phenomena associated to LDR could also be featured at locations different from the damage resonance. These findings will provide new opportunities for material damage detection using nonlinear ultrasounds.