Excitation and focusing of Lamb waves in a multilayered anisotropic plate.

The radiation of Lamb waves by an axisymmetric source on the surface of an anisotropic plate is investigated. An analytical expression of the Green's function, valid in the far field domain, is derived. This approximation shows that the anisotropy of the propagation medium induces a focusing of Lamb modes in some directions, which correspond to minima of the slowness. Numerical simulations and experiments demonstrate that for the fundamental A(0) and S(0) modes, this phenomenon, analog to the phonon focusing effect, can be very strong in materials such as composite fiber-reinforced polymers. This effect due to the plate anisotropy must be correctly taken into account, for example, in order to develop systems for in situ structural health monitoring. The choice of the most appropriate Lamb mode, the excitation frequency, and the design of the array of piezoelectric disks used as transmitters and receivers depends on such considerations.