Core–skin debonding detection in honeycomb sandwich structures through guided wave wavefield analysis

Ultrasonic guided waves have proven to be an effective and efficient method for damage detection and quantification in various plate-like structures. In honeycomb sandwich structures, wave propagation and interaction with typical defects such as hidden debonding damage are complicated; hence, the detection of defects using guided waves remains a challenging problem. The work presented in this article investigates the interaction of low-frequency guided waves with core–skin debonding damage in aluminum core honeycomb sandwich structures using finite element simulations. Due to debonding damage, the waves propagating in the debonded skin panel change to fundamental antisymmetric Lamb waves with different wavenumber values. Exploiting this mechanism, experimental inspection using a non-contact laser Doppler vibrometer was performed to acquire wavefield data from pristine and debonded structures. The data were then processed and analyzed with two wavefield data–based imaging approaches, the filter reconstruction imaging and the spatial wavenumber imaging. Both approaches can clearly indicate the presence, location, and size of the debonding in the structures, thus proving to be effective methods for debonding detection and quantification for honeycomb sandwich structures.