Laser-Generated Lamb Waves Propagation in Multilayered Plates Composed of Viscoelastic Fiber-reinforced Composite Materials

The propagation characteristics of laser-generated Lamb waves in multilayered fiber-reinforced composite plates with different fiber orientations and number of layers have been investigated quantitatively. Considering the viscoelasticity of the composite materials, we have set up finite element models for simulating the laser-generated Lamb waves in two types of the multilayered composite plates. In the first type, different fiber orientations are adopted. In the second one, different number of layers are considered. The results illustrate the occurrence of attenuation and dispersion, which is induced by the viscoelasticity and multilayer structure, respectively.