Leaky Lamb waves (LLW) propagation in composite materials has been studied extensively since it was first observed in 1982. The wave is induced using a pitch-catch arrangement and the plate wave modes are detected by identifying minima in the reflected spectra to obtain the dispersion data. The wave behavior in multi-orientation laminates was well documented and corroborated experimentally with...

Among various efforts pursued to produce fuel efficient vehicles, light weight engineering (i.e. the use of low-density structurally-efficient materials, the application of advanced manufacturing and joining technologies and the design of highly-integrated, multi-functional components/sub-assemblies) plays a prominent role. In the present work, a multi-disciplinary design optimization methodolo...

In this paper, a closed form solution for bending and free vibration analyses of simply supported rectangular laminated composite plates is presented. The static and free vibration behavior of symmetric and antisymmetric laminates is investigated using a refined first-order shear deformation theory. The Winkler–Pasternak two-parameter model is employed to express the interaction between the lam...

Magnetoelectric laminate composites of piezoelectric/magnetostrictive materials were prepared by stacking and bonding together a PZT disk and two layers of Terfenol-D disks with different directions of magnetostriction. These composites were studied to investigate (i) dependence on the magnetostriction direction of the Terfenol-D disk and (ii) dependence on the direction of the applied ac magne...

This paper discusses the effect of misalignments in ply orientation, uniform variations in ply thickness, and through-thickness thermal gradients on the post-cure shape errors for symmetric cross-ply laminates constructed from ultra-thin composite materials. Photogrammetry-based surface measurements are performed for laminates cured at elevated temperatures. Significant out-of-plane shape error...

This paper offers a detailed, quantitative and exhaustive experimental comparison in terms of mechanical properties of three different layouts of carbon composite materials (CFRP) used to strengthen existing old timber beams highly affected by diverse natural defects and biological attacks, testing the use of pultruded laminate attached on the tension side of the element (LR), CFRP fabrics tota...

This research paper compares the thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficients of glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates (GFRP laminates) made using the Hand layup technique. The composite laminates were fabricated by filling with varying concentrations of fly ash, stone powder, aluminium oxide (Al2O3), magnesium hydroxide (Mg (OH)2), Silicon carbide particles(SiC) and hemat...

An innovative actuation principle is introduced in this paper to drive a rotary motor using an anisotropic piezoelectric composite laminate. The driving element is a three layer laminated beam with piezoceramics sandwiched between two anti-symmetric composite laminae. By taking advantage of material anisotropy, torsional motion can be induced from in-plane strain actuation. With such structural...