Harmonic Generation at a Nonlinear Imperfect Joint of Plates by the S0 Lamb Wave Incidence

Nonlinear interaction of Lamb waves with an imperfect joint of plates for the incidence of the lowest-order symmetric (S0) Lamb wave is investigated by perturbation analysis and time-domain numerical simulation. The imperfect joint is modeled as a nonlinear spring-type interface, which expresses interfacial stresses as functions of the displacement discontinuities. In the perturbation analysis, under the assumption of weak nonlinearity, the second-harmonic generation at the joint is examined in the frequency domain by the thin-plate approximation using extensional waves. As a result, the amplitude of the second-harmonic extensional wave is shown to be in good agreement with the result of the S0 mode in a low-frequency range. However, it is found that the thin-plate approximation does not reproduce the amplification of the second-harmonic S0 mode, which occurs due to the resonance of the joint. Furthermore, the time-domain analysis is performed by the elastodynamic finite integration technique (EFIT). When the amplitude of the incident wave is relatively large, the fundamental wave and the second harmonic exhibit different behavior from the results by the perturbation analysis. Specifically, if the incident amplitude is increased, the peak frequency of the second-harmonic amplitude becomes low. The transient behavior of the nonlinear interaction is also examined and discussed based on the results for the weak nonlinearity.