Simulations of harmonic and pulsed ultrasonic polar scans

Numerous experiments [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5] have shown that ultrasonic polar scans are a promising tool for non-destructive characterization of fiber reinforced composites. However, because of the requirement to invert experimental data for extracting quantitative information [5], numerical simulations are mandatory. Such simulations have been developed before for single layered fiber reinforced composites. Nevertheless, since the vast majority of composites are multi-layered, the development of extended numerical models is needed. Such model is presented; together with a presentation of numerical simulations of ultrasonic polar scans for multi-layered composites. It is also shown that the polar scan of a fabric reinforced composite is quite different from a polar scan of (0/90°)-stacked unidirectional layers.Furthermore, the difference between a polar scan for an incident harmonic wave and for an incident pulse is shown.