Proceedings of ISSS 2008

International Conference on Smart Materials Structures and Systems

July 24-26, 2008, Bangalore, India

ISSS-2008/SX-12

A quick lamina characterization using Lamb waves and ANN

Ramadas C a, Krishnan Balasubramaniam b, M. Joshi a, and C.V. Krishnamurthy b
b

Centre for Nondestructive Evaluation and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, Chennai 600 036, INDIA
a
R&DE (E), DRDO, Dighi, Pune 411 015

ABSTRACT
The velocity of Lamb wave depends on the elastic properties of the material. The composite lamina properties can be
obtained using improved micro mechanics models from fiber and resin properties for a given volume fraction. The
properties of lamina change if fiber volume fraction changes. An attempt has been made to predict the lamina properties
using velocities of two primary Lamb modes (Ao and So) and ANN. Neural network has been trained for various elastic
properties and the corresponding Ao and So mode velocities obtained for different fiber volume fractions. The trained
network is used to predict the five elastic properties, fiber volume fractions and densities of T300/5208 lamina for three
sets of Ao and So mode velocities.
Keywords: Lamina properties, So and Ao modes, Artificial neural network (ANN)

1. INTRODUCTION
Composite materials are extensively being used in military and aerospace industry. These materials offer many
advantages such as high specific strength, modulus, and corrosion resistance, etc. In the design and analysis of composite
structures, the elastic properties are required in the lamina level. In general, the elastic properties are obtained subjecting
to destructive evaluation following ASTM test standards [1].
Lamb waves [2] also known as guided waves propagate in plate like structures. Lamb waves can propagate long
distances in plate and cylindrical structures, have through thickness propagation and provide information along the lineof-sight. Hence, these waves can be used for Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) as well as Structural Health Monitoring
(SHM) of composite laminated structures [3-4]. Lamb waves are dispersive; viz. velocity depends on frequencythickness product. Depending on the relationship between the displacement profiles with thickness, the modes are
classified into symmetric (Sn) and anti-symmetric (An) modes. The specific order (represented by the subscript n) of
these two modes types depends on the excitation frequency and thickness of an isotropic plate. In composite laminates,
Lamb wave velocity depends on elastic properties, frequency of excitation, thickness of the plate and direction of
propagation. Change in elastic properties of the material changes Lamb wave velocity. In the forward problem, Lamb
wave velocity can be estimated if material properties known. In the present paper an attempt has been made on an
inverse problem of estimating elastic properties using primary symmetric and anti-symmetric Lamb mode velocities
using Artificial Neural Network (ANN).
With the development of artificial intelligent techniques, the neural network (NN) methods have been in use in many
areas of science and engineering. ANNs are in use in various fields of engineering without changing the basic
methodology. ANN technique has been used for damage detection and identification applications [5-7].
Vishnuvardhan et. al. [8] reconstructed all nine elastic moduli of orthotropic plate structures using a single-transmittermultiple-receiver (STMR) SHM array. They used velocities of primary Lamb modes generated and received by STMR.
The measured velocities are used in an inversion algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA).

Rao [9] reconstructed the elastic moduli of a unidirectional composite by reducing the error between the theoretical and
experimental Lamb wave dispersion curves.
In this paper an attempt has been made for characterization of lamina using primary Lamb symmetric (So) and antisymmetric (Ao) modes and ANN. The group velocities of primary Lamb modes depend on elastic properties of the
material. The lamina properties depend on fiber and matrix system used for processing the lamina. Any change in lamina
properties will change the Lamb modes velocities. It demonstrated that by making use of primary Lamb modes group
velocities and ANN the lamina characterization can be done.

2. LAMINA PROPERTIES FROM RULE OF MIXTURES

Composite laminates can be fabricated by various methods like hand lay up, autoclave, compression molding, reinforced
reaction injection molding, resin transfer molding, vacuum resin transfer molding [10] etc. In the design and analysis of
composite structures, the properties of the lamina are required. The vendor supplying the fiber and resin gives the
properties of these two materials. The properties of the lamina can be obtained using improved rule of mixtures [11]
given in Appendix A. The improved rule of mixtures takes care of fiber-packing geometry [10].
In a transversely isotropic lamina, five elastic constants, E1, E2, G12, G23 and 12 are required for complete lamina
characterization. Once the fiber and resin are selected for the manufacturing of composite materials, the lamina
properties can be obtained using micromechanics approach. But, one more parameter required for the calculation of
elastic properties is fiber volume fraction. By varying the fiber volume fraction a wide range of elastic properties can be
obtained. The fiber volume fraction depends on the fabrication technique also. The maximum fiber volume fraction that
can be achieved in a laminate depends on the fabric. Based on this fiber volume fraction, the quantity of resin is
estimated for a given quantity of fibers. But, after manufacturing the laminate, the fiber volume fraction of laminate will
not be equal to the estimated value. This is because of loss of resin through race tracking in vacuum impregnation
methods [12] and improper infusion strategy. Any variation in fiber volume fraction changes the properties of the
lamina. In most continuous fiber reinforced composites the fiber volume fraction varies from 0.5 to 0.8 [10]. In the
present work, the void fraction is assumed to be very small (< 1%), which can be achieved using vacuum assisted resin
transfer molding technique (VARTM). The effect of very small voids on elastic properties is almost negligible. In
improved micro-mechanics approach the void fraction is not taken into account. When a lamina is characterized, the five
elastic constants, fiber volume fraction and density are to be quantified. It was mentioned earlier that the group velocity
of Lamb modes depends on the elastic properties of the lamina and density. This is the basis, which is used for the
lamina characterization using Lamb waves. An attempt has been made to get the elastic properties, density and fiber
volume fraction by measuring the group velocities of primary Lamb modes, Ao and So and using ANN. This is a simple
technique, requires less instrumentation and experimentation. In the present study, T300 graphite fibers of 450 gram per
square meter (GSM) and 5208 resin system [11] are selected. The properties of T300 graphite fibers and 5208 resin
system are given in Tables 1 and 2.

3. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK

The ANNs are identical to the real neurons in human brain in their structure, processing of data, restoring method and
learning process. NN consists of interconnected processing elements called neurons operating in parallel to a set of input
signals given to each. In an ANN model there are essentially three parts, viz., neurons, weighted interconnections
between neurons and activation function that responds on the set of input signals at neurons to produce the output
signals. The NNs are trained to perform a particular function by adjusting the values of weights between elements.
Among many different types of ANN, the feed forward, multi-layered, supervised neural network with error back
propagation algorithm, generally known as back propagation (BP) [13] network, is by far the most commonly applied
ANN owing to its simplicity. The output of the network, a, is a transferred sum of weighted inputs, p, with added bias
using the sigmoid or a linear function. A simple three layer ANN consists of an input layer, a hidden layer,
interconnected by modifiable weights and an output layer. Input vector is presented to the input layer and output of each
input unit equals the corresponding component in the vector. Each hidden unit computes the weighted sum of its inputs
to form its net scalar neural net activation. The neural net activation is the inner product of the inputs with the weights at

the hidden unit. Each hidden unit emits an output that is a non-linear function of its activation function. Each output unit
similarly computes its net activation based on the hidden unit signals. Before an ANN can be applied, the network needs
to be trained from an existing training set comprising pairs of input-output elements. An ANN with BP algorithm takes a
long time to learn. Therefore several different approaches are developed to enhance the learning performance of BP
learning algorithm. Among them, most popular are Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG), Quasi-Newton and LevenbergMarquardt algorithm. In the present study SCG and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm have been used to train networks.
Standard functions available in Neural Network Toolbox of MATLAB [14] are used.

3.1 Training ANN

The training process requires a set of examples of proper network behaviour, network inputs p and network target
outputs a. The NN training is accomplished by presenting a sequence of training vectors, each with associated target
output vector. The network calculates the weights based on the training data. In the present case, the input to the network
is Ao and So mode wave velocities. The output from ANN is, five elastic properties, E1, E2, G12, G23, 12, density, , and
fiber volume fraction,f. For training ANN, the data was generated using numerical simulations by finite element (FE)
method. For a given fiber volume fraction, using fiber and resin properties given in Table 1, all five elastic properties and
density were calculated using equations (1) to (5) and (6) respectively given in Appendix - A. These properties are used
in FE simulations. The numerical model consists of a single unidirectional lamina of 0.45 mm thick and 300 mm long as
shown in Fig 1. The element used is eight node quadrilateral plane strain element with two degree of freedom,
translations in 1 and 3 directions, at each node. The direction of propagation of Lamb wave is in 1 direction, which is
the fiber direction. In FE model, there are three elements in the thickness direction and six hundred elements along the
length. The central frequency of excitation is 0.5 MHz and there are five cycles in the signal. There are two observation
points along the length, as shown in Fig. 1. At these two observation points, the arrival times of the wave groups
propagating in the lamina reach at times t1 and t2. The distance between the observation points is x, the difference in
time, t = t2 t1. The wave velocity is estimated as, C = x/t. For exciting Ao and So modes the direction of excitations
are shown in Fig. 1. The Ao and So mode wave velocities are generated numerically for the range of fiber volume fraction
0.4 to 0.8. For each value of fiber volume fraction, we have input vector of Ao and So mode velocities and the output is
five elastic constants, fiber volume fraction and density. We call this one data set. Such twenty one data sets are
generated in steps of fiber volume fraction of 0.02. These data sets are used for training ANN and error associated is
1X10-20. Lamb waves are dispersive in nature. For a given material properties, the Lamb wave velocity is same as long
as the plate thickness and frequency product is constant. In the present analysis, the frequency thickness product is 0.225
MHz. mm. Manufacturing a single lamina of 0.45 mm is difficult. So, one may go for higher thickness unidirectional
laminate, accordingly the excitation frequency is estimated to keep the frequency thickness product is equal to 0.225
MHz. mm.

4. LAMINA CHARACTERIZATION USING ANN

The trained network has been used for characterization by measuring primary Lamb mode velocities. The Ao and So
Lamb mode velocities have been generated numerically for three sets of elastic properties corresponding three fiber
volume fractions, 0.49, 0.57 and 0.77. The Lamb modes velocities for these three volume fractions, obtained from
numerical simulations, are shown in Table 3. The elastic properties of lamina required for FE simulations are estimated
using improved rule of mixtures. The Ao and So mode velocities obtained from FE are fed in the trained ANN. The
elastic properties predicted by ANN and properties calculated using improved rule of mixtures are given in the Table 4.
The results are matching very closely. The maximum percentage of error is 0.361 in the prediction of G23 property for a
fiber volume fraction of 0.57.

5. CONCLUSIONS
The five elastic properties and density of a lamina can be obtained from improved micro mechanics principles, if
properties of the constituents, fiber, matrix and fiber volume fraction are known. For a given fiber and matrix properties,
the fiber volume fraction decides the elastic properties of the lamina. For various fiber volume fractions and the
corresponding elastic properties and Lamb mode velocities ANN is trained. Using this trained network, the five elastic
properties of lamina, fiber volume fraction and density are predicted for three given sets of Lamb mode velocities. The

maximum percentage of error in the prediction is 0.361 of G23 property for a fiber volume fraction of 0.57. These
lamina level properties can be used for design and analysis of composite structures.

6. FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure: Model used for FE simulations

Table 1: T300 graphite fiber properties

Ef1 in GPa

Ef2 in GPa

Gf12 in GPa

Gf23 in GPa

f12

f in kg/m3

231

17.352

91

4.932

0.27

1770

Table 2: 5208 Resin properties

Em in GPa

Gm in GPa

m in kg/m3

3.9

1.4

0.30

1270

Table 3: Lamb modes velocities in m/s.

Ao mode

So mode

0.49

1737.01

8729.71

0.57

1884.10

9277.97

0.77

2447.65

10403.01

Table 4: Comparison of properties from ANN and exact values

Property

ANN

Exact

ANN

Exact

ANN

Exact

0.49

0.49

0.569

0.57

0.77

0.77

E1 (GPa)

115.32

115.17

133.20

133.35

178.98

178.76

E2 (GPa)

7.72

7.72

8.57

8.58

11.46

11.45

G12 (GPa)

4.44

4.44

5.36

5.37

10.17

10.15

G23 (GPa)

2.53

2.53

2.76

2.77

3.53

3.53

12

0.31

0.31

0.30

0.30

0.28

0.28

m ( kg/m3)

1515

1515

1554.7

1555

1655.5

1655

APPENDIX A. IMPROVED RULE OF MIXTURES

Longitudinal Youngs modulus,

E1 = v f E f 1 + (1 v f )Em

v f 1 v f
Transverse Youngs modulus, E 2 =
+
Eb 2
Em

where,

(2)

(3)

Gb12 = v f G f 12 + 1 v f Gm

v f 1 v f
Transverse shear modulus, G23 =
+
Gb 23
Gm

where,

Eb 2 = v f E f 2 + 1 v f E m

v f 1 v f
Longitudinal shear modulus, G12 =
+
Gb12
Gm

where,

(1)

(4)

Gb 23 = v f G f 23 + 1 v f Gm

Longitudinal Poisson ratio,

Density,

12 = v f f 12 + (1 v f ) m

= v f f + (1 v f ) m

(5)
(6)

where, f is fiber volume fraction, Ef1, Ef2 are longitudinal and transverse Youngs modulus of fibers, Em is Youngs
modulus of matrix, Gf12, Gf23 are longitudinal and transverse shear modulus of fibers, Gm is shear modulus of matrix, f12,
m are Poisson ratio of fibers and matrix, f and m densities of fiber and matrix respectively.
The lamina is assumed to have transversely isotropic behavior in 2-3 plane [10], the following relation holds good.

Transverse Poisson ratio,

23 =

E2
1
2G23

(7)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Mr. Sajal Roy (R&DE, DRDO, Pune) for useful discussions on ANN.

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