Numerical Evaluation of Phase Velocity and Attenuation of Ultrasonic Waves in Fiber-Reinforced Composites Using the Mass-Spring-Dashpot Lattice Model

Abstract

The paper presents a numerical study to evaluate the phase velocities and attenuations of the average longitudinal and shear ultrasonic waves resulting from multiple scattering in fiber-reinforced composites. A computational procedure developed in this work is first used to produce a random, yet largely even distribution of fibers. Both the viscoelastic epoxy matrix and lossless randomly distributed graphite fibers are modeled using the mass-spring-dashpot lattice model, with no damping for the latter. By numerically simulating ultrasonic through-transmission tests using this direct model of composites, phase velocities and attenuations of the longitudinal and shear waves through the composite are found as functions of frequency or fiber concentration. The numerical results are observed to generally agree with the corresponding results in the literature. Discrepancies found in some detail aspects, particularly in the attenuation results, are also addressed.