A signal domain transform method for spatial resolution improvement of Lamb wave signals with synthetically measured relative wavenumber curves

In practical structural health monitoring with Lamb waves, the signal spatial resolution is usually restricted by not only dispersion but also the space duration of excitation waveforms, that is, the initial spatial resolution for the signals before traveling. As a result, the final resolution and accuracy of damage identification could be badly impaired. To overcome this problem, a signal domain transform method is presented in this article. In signal domain transform, the original dispersive Lamb wave signals are transformed from the time to distance domains, with the time–distance scaling on the excitation waveforms particularly modified. Then, both dispersion compensation and initial spatial resolution enhancement can be actualized to efficiently improve the signal spatial resolution. Considering the practical situation that the structural property parameters could be unavailable to theoretically derive the requisite wavenumber relations, signal domain transform with synthetically measured relative wavenumber curves is further explored. After the frequency domain representation and spatial resolution of Lamb wave signals are basically analyzed, the principle and numerical realization of signal domain transform are investigated. Hereafter, the synthetic measurement of relative wavenumber curves for signal domain transform is discussed and preliminarily validated in an aluminum plate. Finally, signal domain transform is applied for high-resolution imaging of adjacent multiple damages. The efficiency of signal domain transform and signal domain transform–based imaging methods has been well demonstrated by the experimental study on a glass fiber–reinforced composite plate with unknown material parameters.