Lamb-wave-based two-dimensional areal scan damage imaging using reverse-time migration with a normalized zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition

This article presents a two-dimensional, non-contact, areal scanning system to image and quantify multiple sites of damage in isotropic plates using reverse-time migration with a normalized zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition. The hybrid system composed of a single piezoelectric actuator mounted onto the structure and a laser Doppler vibrometer for two-dimensional scan. The laser Doppler vibrometer scanned a region in the vicinity of the lead zirconate titanate actuator to capture the scattered wavefield introduced by the damage. The proposed damage imaging technique takes into account the amplitude, phase, and all the frequency content of the single-mode Lamb waves propagating in the plate; thus, the size of multiple sites of damage can be imaged without bias, regardless of the damage locations. Damage image quality was used as a metric to compare two-dimensional areal scans and linear scans as well as to compare the proposed method with existing imaging conditions. The experimental results show that the two-dimensional reverse-time migration/normalized zero-lag cross-correlation technique is capable of imaging and quantification of multiple damage sites in an aluminum plate using a single lead zirconate titanate actuator and a nearby, areal laser Doppler vibrometer scan.