Aspects of a Hybrid Analytical Finite Element Method Approach for Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection Design

Abstract

A strategy is presented here to develop guided wave inspection systems using short-range ultrasonic guided waves. A hybrid analytical finite element method (FEM) is presented. The importance of dispersion curve computation, wave structure analysis in the test part, actuator design, the establishment of appropriate boundary conditions from the actuator design to be used in any FEM computations leading to key experiments, and aspects of system design are discussed. Several interesting problems reported by the author in previous publications are used here to stress the importance of mode and frequency choice when solving guided wave problems.