Torsional guided wave-based debonding detection in honeycomb sandwich beams

Debonding is one of the most dangerous damages in honeycomb sandwich structures, which causes stiffness reduction and is invisible from the surface. Guided wave-based non-destructive evaluation is a promising approach with high sensitivity and high efficiency for debonding detection. A torsional guided wave method is proposed to inspect debonding damage in honeycomb sandwich beams, which is proved to be better in damage location for the beams in the paper than the flexural wave used before. The honeycomb heterogeneity effect on the interaction between guided waves and debonding are first investigated by finite element methods. Then the ability of torsional waves to determine debonding locations and sizes is discussed in detail. Finally, in order to verify the proposed method, experiments are carried out to inspect debonding damage with two sizes.