Lamb waves generation on thin plates using piezocomposites

The mode selection of Lamb waves generated in thin aluminium plates by using 2-2 piezocomposites has been studied. In this paper, 2-2 piezocomposite square plates have been designed, made, and compared with standard piezoceramic plates to test the improvement on the generation and propagation of symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb modes. An optical interferometer was used to measure the out-of-plane displacement of the propagating Lamb wave modes generated with the piezoceramic plates. Different Finite Element Models, using a commercial simulation program (PZFlex) were also developed to calculate the displacement signals and to compare them with the experimental ones. Next, the same measurements were done with two different 2-2 piezocomposites to see the mode selection of the Lamb waves generated. Different excitation frequencies were used experimentally and implemented in PZFlex to calculate the displacement signals, verifying the mode cancellations. The experimental measurements show good agreement with the models.