Damage detection of a T-shaped panel by wave propagation analysis in the plane stress

A computational approach to analysis of wave propagation in plane stress problems is presented. The initial-boundary value problem is spatially approximated by the multi-node C0 displacement-based isoparametric quadrilateral finite elements. To integrate the element matrices the multi-node Gauss-Legendre-Lobatto quadrature rule is employed. The temporal discretization is carried out by the Newmark type algorithm reformulated to accommodate the structure of local element matrices. Numerical simulations are conducted for a T-shaped steel panel for different cases of initial excitation. For diagnostic purposes, the uniformly distributed loads subjected to an edge of the T-joint are found to be the most appropriate for design of ultrasonic devices for monitoring the structural element integrity.