The transmission of Lamb waves across adhesively

bonded lap joints

M. J. S. Lowe
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College, London SW7 2BX, United Kingdom

R. E. Challis
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD,
United Kingdom

C. W. Chan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College, London SW7 2BX, United Kingdom

共Received 23 June 1999; accepted for publication 3 December 1999兲

The transmission of Lamb waves across adhesively bonded lap joints is investigated using finite
element analysis. The studies consider three modes for excitation and reception, s 0 , a 0 , and a 1 ,
applied to lap joints consisting of parallel aluminum sheets bonded with an epoxy adhesive.
Transmission coefficient results for a two-dimensional range of bond thicknesses and bond overlap
lengths are presented for all three modes. The transmission coefficients are calculated from the
spectra of the received and transmitted signals using an approach which is insensitive to the
presence of multimode signals and reverberated signals, and which approximates to a power
transmission coefficient. Detailed analysis is then performed for one of the modes in order to
investigate the nature of the mode conversion in the overlap region of the joint. It is found that the
relative amplitudes of the different modes which propagate in the overlap region can be estimated
reliably and simply from the properties of the incident wave mode. As well as demonstrating the
physics of the mode conversion behavior, the study provides a basis for the selection of modes for
nondestructive evaluation 共NDE兲 of the bond region and for measuring the bond dimensions.
© 2000 Acoustical Society of America. 关S0001-4966共00兲01603-9兴
PACS numbers: 43.35.Cg 关HEB兴

INTRODUCTION
The transmission of Lamb waves across adhesively
bonded joints has important industrial relevance. There is a
clear need for the development of techniques for the inspec-
tion of adhesively bonded metal and composite joints which
are in ever increasing use in safety-critical applications such
as those found in the aerospace and automotive industries.
Lamb waves, which could be transmitted in the plate on one
side of a joint and received in the plate on the other side,
appear to offer the potential for cheap and convenient in situ
inspection.
There are two areas of need for inspection. First, in mass
production industries in which automated assembly methods
may be used, it is important that the dimensions of adhered
joints, such as adhesive layer thickness and overlap length,
are within tolerance and are measurable. Second, there is a
need in all industries which use adhesive joints to detect
defects such as voids in the adhesive or local separation of
the adhesive from one of the adherends. Conventional tech-
niques to measure the dimensions or detect defects rely
mainly on the use of normal incidence scanning which is
performed over a two-dimensional area containing the over-
lap region. This technique is time consuming and access to
the joint area is a prerequisite. Lamb wave techniques have
the potential for greatly increased speed of inspection of
large regions of material because each measurement inspects
along a line rather than just at a single point. Furthermore,
they have the added advantage that they do not require direct
access to the region.
A considerable amount of work has been carried out on
techniques for the inspection of adhesively bonded joints us-
ing ultrasonic reflection or transmission through the joints,
reported for example in Refs. 1–9. Comprehensive studies
into the science and technology of adhesive bonds can be
found in the texts by Lee and Neville10 and Kinloch.11
The fundamental behavior of Lamb waves in plate struc-
tures has been reported widely.12–14 Studies of waves in
more complicated plate systems have included composite
plates15–17 and bonded structures.18–26 Rokhlin26 has em-
ployed both analytical and experimental methods to look at
the interaction of Lamb waves with adhered metal lap joints.
He has also reported work on an important related topic, the
transmission of Lamb waves across spot-welded lap
joints.27,28 Because of the predominantly analytical nature of
Rokhlin’s work on the adhered joints, the number of differ-
ent cases investigated was limited to those with simple
boundary conditions 共e.g., parallel overlapped sheets coupled
acoustically with a water layer兲. This limitation can be over-
come by employing a numerical method such as the finite
element technique which has been used successfully to
model Lamb wave propagation in plates.29–33 Recently,
Challis et al.34 have demonstrated experimentally that the
principal bond dimensions of adhesively bonded T-joints can
be determined by careful processing of transmitted Lamb
wave signals.

1333 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107 (3), March 2000 0001-4966/2000/107(3)/1333/13/$17.00 © 2000 Acoustical Society of America 1333

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FIG. 1. Schematic of a lap joint showing the concept of transmission of
Lamb waves from transmitter plate to receiver plate, principal dimensions,
and finite element monitoring locations.
In this paper we apply the finite element modeling tech-
nique to study in detail Lamb wave transmission across an
adhered metal lap joint. The objective is to investigate the
physics of Lamb wave propagation across adhered joints,
and to predict the influence of the dimensions of the bond on
the transmission coefficients of the modes. The findings have
relevance to both the measurement of bond dimensions and
the detection of defects. All of the finite element modeling
was conducted using the general purpose program FINEL, de-
veloped at Imperial College.35 The program simulates, in the
time domain, the propagation of the waves and their interac-
tions at boundaries in the overlap region
We present the results of two studies. In the first study
we consider separately three modes: s 0 , a 0 , and a 1 . Each
mode is excited in an aluminum plate 共the transmitter plate兲,
travels across an adhesive lap joint, and is then received in
the second aluminum plate 共the receiver plate兲, as shown in
Fig. 1. We predict the amount of energy in the received
mode as a function of the two key dimensions of the adhe-
sive layer: the overlap length and the bond thickness. In the
second study, we focus on one of these modes, s 0 , and one
size of joint. We examine in detail the Lamb wave activity
within the overlap region, that is to say, the effects of mode
conversion. This provides evidence of the main factors
which govern the transmissibility of Lamb waves across ad-
hesive lap joints and consequently enables us to make deduc-
tions concerning the potential for the exploitation of the
modes.
I. DISPERSION CURVE CONSIDERATIONS: CHOICE
OF EXCITATION SIGNAL FOR s 0 , a 0 , AND a 1
MODES
The first task with any technique involving Lamb waves
is to decide on appropriate regimes on the dispersion curves
for exciting the required Lamb modes. We aim for two
ideals.36 共1兲 a single mode should be excited, in order to limit
1334 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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the complexity of the received signals; 共2兲 the choice of fre-
quency should be such that the wave is relatively nondisper-
sive, so that signal shapes are retained as the wave packet
propagates.
Figure 2共a兲 and 共b兲 show the phase velocity and group
velocity dispersion curves for the first six Lamb modes in an
aluminum plate. These, and all the other dispersion curves
and mode shapes in this paper, were calculated using a gen-
eral purpose dispersion curve program, DISPERSE, which was
developed at Imperial College.37,38
From the group velocity dispersion curves, it can be
seen that dispersion of the s 0 and a 0 modes is relatively
small at about 1 MHz mm, and that operation above 1.5
MHz-mm could result in the spurious excitation of other
modes. Operation at very low frequency-thickness would re-
sult in the propagation of signals which are temporally 共and
spatially兲 long and this could cause practical problems due to
reverberation and interference. A frequency-thickness of 1
MHz-mm would therefore seem to be reasonable for the s 0
and a 0 modes. In this work this corresponds to an excitation
center frequency of 625 kHz for aluminum plates of 1.6-mm
thickness.
It is convenient to excite the a 1 mode at its maximum
group velocity because dispersion is kept to a minimum and
also at this point it is the fastest of all possible modes. This
means that it would be the first signal of a group of modes to
be received when several are mode converted. However, the
frequency at which this occurs is relatively close to the cutoff
frequency for the s 1 mode, which has a wave number similar
to that of the a 1 mode. This can be seen by the close prox-
imity of their phase velocities in the region of this frequency
in Fig. 2共a兲. The implication of this is that it would be diffi-
cult to resolve the two modes in the wave number domain
and hence it would be virtually impossible to obtain trans-
mission coefficient results for the a 1 mode alone. Decreasing
the frequency would reduce the excitation of the s 1 mode, so
a frequency of 1.4 MHz was eventually chosen, correspond-
ing to a frequency-thickness of 2.24 MHz-mm; this gives a
working compromise between the avoidance of the excita-
tion of the s 1 mode whilst achieving relatively low disper-
sion.
The signals which were used in the study consisted of
five cycles of the chosen center frequency, windowed by a
Hanning function. This choice was made in order to give a
good compromise between the needs for a narrow band-
width, for mode selectivity, and a short time duration to give
temporal separation of multiple signals.
FIG. 2. Dispersion curves for an alu-
minum plate: 共a兲 phase velocity; 共b兲
group velocity.
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1334

II. DETERMINATION OF TRANSMISSION
COEFFICIENTS ACROSS AN ADHESIVE LAP JOINT
We started by performing a number of finite element
calculations, for each of the three modes in turn, to predict
the transmission coefficient of the given mode across a
bonded joint. By repeating the analyses for ranges of bond
thickness and bond length we could then express the trans-
mission coefficients as functions of these two parameters of
the joint. Thus the aim of each finite element analysis was to
propagate an s 0 , a 0 or a 1 mode in the transmitter plate and
to measure the response of the same mode in the receiver
plate, expressing the ratio of their strengths as a transmission
coefficient.
A. Description of finite element models of joints
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the adhesive joint con-
figuration which was modeled. Four-noded linear elements
were used to represent the two-dimensional section in plane
strain. The elements representing the 1.6-mm-thick alumi-
num plates were each 0.2 mm square, so there were 16 ele-
ments through the thickness of each plate, and at least 12
elements per wavelength along the plate. This comfortably
satisfies the threshold of eight elements per wavelength
which the authors have found from experience to be a good
limit for accurate modeling. Sufficient lengths of plate were
modeled such that reverberations of the signals along the
lengths of the plates could be avoided. The mesh for the
epoxy layer was chosen to be of similar refinement to the
meshes for the plates, the number of elements through its
thickness varying according to the thickness being modeled.
Perfect bonding was assumed between the aluminum and the
epoxy. The following bulk material properties were assumed
for the aluminum and the epoxy, respectively: longitudinal
velocities 6120 and 2200 m/sec, shear velocities 3100 and
1100 m/sec, densities 2700 and 1000 kg/m3. All of the finite
element analyses assumed perfectly elastic materials, thus
neglecting any damping properties. The aluminum has neg-
ligible damping properties and is therefore accurately mod-
1335 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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FIG. 3. Predictions of transmitted signals across a lap
joint when s 0 mode is incident: 共a兲 time record for bond
length 2 mm and bond thickness 0.2 mm; 共b兲 time
record for bond length 26 mm and bond thickness 1.4
mm; 共c兲 2D-FFT of transmitted signal for second case
共length 26 mm, thickness 1.4 mm兲.
eled in this way. However, the adhesive material can damp
the sound significantly, and the effects of this will be exam-
ined later in this paper.
The excitation of each chosen input mode was achieved
by prescribing the displacements at the nodes across the
thickness of the remote end of the transmitter plate, over the
time period of the signal. According to the earlier discussion,
the signals that were used consisted of five cycles of the
target frequency in a Hanning window. In order to excite the
desired mode without exciting any other modes which could
exist at the same frequency, the amplitudes of the displace-
ments 共in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions兲 at each
node across the thickness of the plate were scaled by the
amplitudes of the displacement mode shapes at the appropri-
ate depth in the plate. Furthermore, by performing this scal-
ing in the frequency domain, it was possible to account for
changes of the mode shape over the frequency bandwidth of
the signal.31,39 This method ensures reliably that only the
desired mode is excited. The input signal was the only
boundary condition which was applied to the models.
Explicit time marching was employed, assuming a diag-
onal mass matrix. The time step was chosen to satisfy the
stability limit L/C, where L is the element length and C is
the wave speed of the fastest wave present.40 Preparatory
solutions using part of the model representing just one plate
were used to confirm that the idealization accurately pre-
dicted the expected propagation behavior of the dispersion
curves of Fig. 2.
B. Signal processing to extract modal information
Results of one of the simulations, for the s 0 mode and a
joint with 2-mm bond length and 0.2-mm bond thickness, are
shown in Fig. 3共a兲. The figure shows a signal received after
propagating across the joint. Specifically, the plot is of the
time record of the displacement component in the direction
normal to the plate, at one of the finite element nodes on the
top surface of the receiver plate. This received signal is
clearly rather different in shape from the incident windowed
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1335
 tone burst. We identify three phenomena which can be re-
sponsible for this: 共1兲 in general, several possible modes can
propagate within the overlap region, interfering with each
other and each transmitting energy at a different velocity; 共2兲
the modes within the overlap region can reflect as well as
transmit at the ends of the overlap, so that they reverberate
over the length of the overlap region, emitting energy into
the receiver plate at each reverberation; 共3兲 both s 0 and a 0
modes can be transmitted into the receiver plate by mode
conversion from the modes in the overlap region. Thus there
are several signals together in region ‘‘A’’ in the figure, cor-
responding to some combination of these effects. For this
particular case, in which the overlap length is short, the re-
verberations die away very rapidly. The signals in region
‘‘B’’ correspond to reflections from the remote end of the
receiver plate, are not of interest, and should therefore be
ignored.
Figure 3共b兲 shows the received signal for another s 0
case, that of a much longer bond, of length 26 mm, and a
thickness of 1.4 mm. Here it can be seen that the reverbera-
tions in the overlap length, marked region ‘‘C,’’ are of sig-
nificant amplitude and duration. Also, the first arrival of the
five-cycle signal can just be identified before the start of the
reverberations.
Since our interest is to predict transmission coefficients
for the same type of mode as that which is incident, it is
necessary to separate the multimode components in the re-
ceived signals. In the current example, in which the s 0 mode
is incident, the aim therefore is to separate the a 0 and s 0
components in the receiver plate and retain only the s 0 . This
can be done easily using a two-dimensional Fourier trans-
form 共2D-FFT兲41 which decomposes the signal into its fre-
quency and wave number domains. Instead of monitoring the
received signal at just 1 node, 64 nodes at intervals of 0.4
mm were monitored on the receiver plate, as shown sche-
matically in Fig. 1. While performing the transform, a Han-
ning window was applied to the space domain.
Figure 3共c兲 shows a plot of the 2D-FFT of the results of
the second case 关Fig. 3共b兲兴, clearly identifying separately the
transmission of the two modes. The 2D spectrum also exhib-
its extrema along the ‘‘ridges’’ of both modes; in the trans-
form of the input signal these ridges would be smooth. These
extrema are the result of the interference between the directly
transmitted mode 共e.g., s 0 兲 and those modes which are of the
same type (s 0 ) which have arisen due to reverberations in
the overlap region. The plot therefore shows that the trans-
mitted amplitude is extremely sensitive to the value of fre-
quency.
C. Calculation of a transmission coefficient
A conventional approach for determining a transmission
coefficient for a mode would be to measure the amplitude of
a particular component of displacement in the receiver plate,
at a particular frequency, and then to divide this by the am-
plitude of the corresponding component in the transmitter
plate. Such an approach would yield transmission coefficient
values for any chosen frequency within the bandwidth of the
signal. However, as seen in the 2D-FFT plot, the received
amplitude of a mode varies dramatically with frequency be-
1336 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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cause of interference between the directly transmitted signal
and the reverberating signal. The frequency values associated
with the interference extrema in the spectrum may in fact be
useful for the characterization of the joint, and indeed Challis
et al.34 have found that these features are particularly impor-
tant to the successful operation of an artificial neural network
共ANN兲 scheme to estimate bond dimensions from Lamb
wave signals that have traversed a joint. However, in the
present work we are interested in determining a single scalar
measure of the strength of transmission, without sensitivity
to a precise chosen value of frequency. We therefore prefer a
measure which depends on the whole spectrum of the signal
rather than a single frequency.
Alleyne and Cawley have shown41 that the frequencies
and wave numbers of positions on the ridge of a mode in the
2D-FFT plot correspond to locations on the dispersion curve
for the mode, and that the amplitude of the plot at any of
these positions may be used to determine transmission or
reflection coefficients at the given frequency-wave number.
Provided that the 2D-FFT is applied in the same manner to
both the received and the incident modes, the coefficient is
thus given by the ratio of the 2D-FFT amplitudes in the two
signals. The conditions of validity require that certain aspects
are identical for both the measured and the reference signals,
including the thickness and material of the plates, the com-
ponent which is monitored 共typically a surface displacement
in a particular direction兲, the mode, and the processing pa-
rameters and windows which are used for the 2D-FFT. For a
given mode and frequency, the power flow of the mode is
proportional to the square of its amplitude,14 the constant of
proportionality being a function of the mode, the properties
of the plate, the frequency, and the choice of the component
which is used to define its amplitude. Given the above con-
ditions which are placed on the 2D-FFT calculation, the con-
stant of proportionality is the same for both the incident and
the received signal at any chosen frequency. In this case the
square of the transmission coefficient at that frequency may
therefore be identified as the power transmission coefficient.
A simple procedure for calculating a scalar measure of
transmission over the full spectrum of the signal is to sum
values over the area 共␻ and k兲 of the 2D-FFT plot which
represents the received signal, and then divide the total by
the value found in the same way for the incident signal. We
choose to sum the squares of the amplitudes in this manner,
thus yielding a transmission coefficient which is an approxi-
mate measure of the proportion of power transmitted. This is
not an exact power transmission coefficient, primarily be-
cause it neglects the variation with frequency of the constant
of proportionality between the square of the wave amplitude
and the power flow. However, the coefficients which are thus
calculated for our rather narrow band signals are likely to be
dominated by the terms around the center frequency. We
should also observe that this approach assumes that the shape
of the variation of the 2D-FFT plot with wave number, at
any particular frequency, is the same for both the incident
and the received signals; that is to say that the wave number
spectra of the two signals being compared differ only by an
amplitude scale factor. In fact this is the case because the
wave number spectrum at a particular frequency is deter-
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1336
 TABLE I. Configurations of bonds analyzed using finite element analysis.

Bond length, L 共mm兲

Bond thickness,
t 共mm兲 2 6 10 14 18 22 26 30

0.2 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0
0.4 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1
0.6 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0
0.8 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1
1.0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0
1.2 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1
1.4 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0
1.6 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1
1.8 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0 s0
2.0 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1 a0 , a1

mined by the spatial sampling of the 2D-FFT which was

identical for both incident and received signals. Indeed, this
was also confirmed by numerical checks which were per-
formed on several of the results. Thus we take this approach
for its simplicity to implement, and recognize that it yields a
coefficient which approximates, for a narrow-band signal, to
the power transmission coefficient. For reference, and to dis-
tinguish this from the displacement transmission coefficient
which we will use in the detailed study later, we shall refer to
this as the power transmission coefficient. Formally, and ex-
pressed in dB, its definition is
兺 ␻ 兺 k B ␻2 k
power transmission coefficient⫽T⬇10 log , 共1兲
兺 ␻ 兺 k A ␻2 k
where A ␻ k is the amplitude of the 2D-FFT plot of the inci-
dent signal at frequency ␻ and wave number k, B ␻ k is the
same for the received signal, and the summations are carried
out over all sampled points in ␻ and k for the part of the
2D-FFT plot representing the chosen mode.

D. Transmission coefficient results

The simulations were repeated for each of the combina-
tions of bond length 共L兲 and bond thickness (t), and for each
of the mode types, shown in Table I. Each analysis yielded a
single value of power transmission coefficient. The full sets
of transmission coefficients for the matrix of bond lengths
and thicknesses were then plotted.
Figure 4共a兲 shows a plot of the power transmission co-
efficient plotted against bond length and bond thickness for
the s 0 mode. The plot shows that when the bond thickness is
small 共below 1 mm兲, the transmission coefficient is relatively
low. If the bond thickness is 1 mm or above, then the trans-
mission coefficient starts off low at small bond lengths and
rises relatively rapidly with bond length. For bonds whose
lengths are larger than 15 mm and thicknesses are larger than
1 mm the transmission coefficient is fairly constant at about
⫺2 dB. Similar behavior in the variation of the transmission
coefficient with overlap length was observed by Rokhlin26 in
a numerical and experimental study of the Lamb wave trans-
mission coefficient between two metal sheets coupled to-
gether by a water layer. He obtained a maximum transmis- FIG. 4. Transmission coefficient versus bond length and bond thickness for
sion coefficient of about ⫺4 dB. This is lower than the 共a兲 s 0 mode; 共b兲 a 0 mode; 共c兲 a 1 mode.

1337 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000 Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1337

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values obtained in this present work and could possibly be
attributed to the loss in transmission due to the water not
supporting transverse stresses.
Figure 4共b兲 shows a plot of the transmission coefficient
versus bond length and bond thickness for the a 0 mode. It
can be seen that, apart from the case where the bond length
and bond thickness are very small, the transmission coeffi-
cient is consistently large, larger than ⫺10 dB. At large bond
lengths there appear to be maxima and minima in the bond
thickness direction.
Figure 4共c兲 shows a plot of the transmission coefficient
versus bond length and bond thickness for the a 1 mode. The
transmission coefficient remains relatively high and constant
throughout the calculated range of bond lengths and thick-
ness, with just one shallow minimum.
III. INVESTIGATION OF PHYSICS OF TRANSMISSION
PHENOMENA
The power transmission coefficient results show the in-
fluence of the bond dimensions on the transmission of the
modes, but they give no understanding of the physics of the
transmission of the energy across the joint. As well as satis-
fying scientific curiosity, such an understanding is important
if reliable Lamb wave techniques are to be developed to
estimate bond dimensions and to detect bond flaws. In sup-
port of this aim, we now present results of further finite
element simulations to investigate the physics of the trans-
mission. The simulations include both propagating and eva-
nescent modes, but in the interests of clarity we have limited
our discussion of the physical phenomena to the propagating
modes alone. In any case the evanescent modes are likely to
be insignificant in all but the very shortest joints.
Having separated the target transmitted mode from any
other modes in the receiver plate, using the 2D-FFT, we are
still left with two phenomena which we have identified as
contributing to the transmission behavior: the possibility of
multiple modes in the overlap region, and reverberation of
these modes in the overlap region. We will consider these
effects sequentially. First we will examine the mode conver-
sion and the existence of modes in the overlap region, ne-
glecting any reverberation, leading to an understanding of
the direct transmission across the joint. Then we will con-
sider the way in which reverberations modify this behavior.
We consider a bond of 0.4-mm thickness, and restrict
the study to the s 0 mode.
1338 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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FIG. 5. Dispersion curves for overlap region: 共a兲 phase
velocity; 共b兲 group velocity.
A. Mode conversion and ‘‘carrier modes’’ in the
overlap region
The wave in the transmitter plate may convert to one or
more modes at the location where it first meets the adhesive
layer, shown as location A in Fig. 1. These new waves which
then travel in the bonded region are the natural modes of the
three-layer system of aluminum-adhesive-aluminum. On ar-
rival at the end of the bonded region, shown as location B in
Fig. 1, further mode conversion takes place to the Lamb
waves which then travel in the receiver plate. The waves
which travel in the bonded region are referred to here as the
‘‘carrier modes,’’ signifying their role in carrying the energy
across the joint.
Figure 5 shows the phase and group velocity dispersion
curves for the three-layer plate consisting of a 0.4-mm-thick
layer of adhesive between two aluminum plates of thickness
1.6 mm. It can be seen that at the target frequency of 625
kHz, there are four possible modes, labeled A 0 , S 0 , A 1 , and
S 1 . The labeling system follows the conventional Lamb
wave labels for convenience, although strictly these waves
are not Lamb waves because the plate consists of three layers
rather than one. The capital letters for labeling are used here
to signify modes in the overlap region, to distinguish them
from the lower case letters used to denote the modes in the
transmitter and receiver plates. In general it must be assumed
that the incident s 0 mode can mode convert in some propor-
tion to each of these four modes.
Figure 6共a兲 shows a schematic of a finite element model
which was used to predict the strength of the conversion to
each of the carrier modes. In most respects, including all the
discretization details, this model was the same as the models
of the full joint which were described earlier. However, a
sufficiently long bonded region was modeled such that the
mode converted waves could be received in the joint, and did
not continue to a receiver plate, as indicated. An s 0 mode
was generated at the remote end of the transmitter plate. The
FIG. 6. Schematic of finite element models used for study of mode conver-
sion. Plates are 1.6-mm thick, adhesive is 0.4-mm thick. 共a兲 For mode con-
version from s 0 to carrier modes; 共b兲 for mode conversion from carrier
modes to s 0 .
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1338

FIG. 7. Separate contributions from the four carrier modes to the transmis-
sion of s 0 across the whole joint, calculated without considering reverbera-
tions.
four carrier modes were received separately, yielding the
strengths of transmission from the s 0 mode in the transmitter
plate to each of the carrier modes in the overlap region.
Scattered bulk waves and nonpropagating modes at the dis-
continuity were neglected. The separate reception of each of
the carrier modes required particular attention because the
zero-order and first-order mode pairs 共Fig. 5兲 each have very
similar velocities, so that they are not easily separated, even
using a 2D-FFT. An additional property, the modal symme-
try, was therefore exploited in addition to the 2D-FFT. A
series of 64 nodes was monitored along the center line of the
adhesive layer. A 2D-FFT of the in-plane displacements here
reveals only the two symmetric carrier modes 共S 0 and S 1 兲,
which are well separated in velocity and therefore easily re-
solved by the 2D-FFT; similarly, a 2D-FFT of the out-of-
plane displacements reveals and resolves the two antisym-
metric modes A 0 and A 1 .
Figure 6共b兲 shows a schematic of a second finite element
model which was used to predict the mode conversion, this
time for conversion from the carrier modes in the overlap
region to the s 0 mode in the receiver plate. Finite element
analyses were conducted to study incidence of each of the
four carrier modes. In each case, the carrier mode was ex-
cited in the overlap region, and a 2D-FFT was performed to
determine the strength of transmission to the s 0 mode in the
receiver plate. Having predicted functions for transmission
from the transmitter plate to the overlap region, and from the
1339 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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overlap region to the receiver plate, it remains just to com-
bine these results to show how much each of the carrier
modes contributes to the overall transmission. This was done
by multiplying the results of the two finite element models in
the frequency domain for each of the four carrier modes in
turn. The combination is shown in Fig. 7. The four curves
show the displacement transmission coefficients 共the power
transmission coefficient approach is not needed here兲 for
each of the four carrier modes. Thus, for example, the curve
labeled ‘‘s 0 -A 1 -s 0 ’’ shows the transmission coefficient for
s 0 in the transmitter plate, to A 1 in the overlap region, to s 0
in the receiver plate. We emphasize again that the transmis-
sion coefficients are meaningful only because we are com-
paring like quantities in the transmitter plate and the receiver
plate: we record the normal displacement at the surface of
the plate, both plates are identical, and the incident and trans-
mitted signals are of the same mode.
B. Transmission across a joint if reverberations are
neglected
If reverberations are neglected then the overall transmis-
sion across the joint is given by some combination of con-
tributions from the four carrier modes which we have just
examined, in other words some combination of the separate
curves of Fig. 7. We examine here the contributions and how
these combinations are effected.
It can be seen in Fig. 7 that most of the energy is trans-
ported by the two first-order modes in the overlap region,
with transmission amplitudes at least an order of magnitude
larger than those for the zero-order modes. An insight into
why the first-order modes dominate in this case can be
gained by comparing the mode shapes of the input mode to
the mode shapes of the carrier modes. Figure 8共a兲 shows the
displacement mode shapes of the s 0 mode in the transmitter
plate. Figures 8共b兲 to 8共e兲 show the displacement mode
shapes of the S 0 , A 0 , S 1 and A 1 modes, respectively, in the
overlap region. All of the mode shapes shown were calcu-
lated at a frequency of 625 kHz. Intuitively, we would expect
to excite modes in the overlap region if the mode shape in
the bottom layer of the overlap region 共the part of the overlap
region occupied by the transmitter plate兲 is similar to the
mode shape in the transmitter plate. Indeed this is a sound
FIG. 8. Displacement mode shapes of
共a兲 s 0 mode in transmitter plate; 共b兲 S 0
mode in overlap region; 共c兲 A 0 mode
in overlap region; 共d兲 S 1 mode in over-
lap region; 共e兲 A 1 mode in overlap re-
gion.
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1339
 TABLE II. Power transmission coefficients, predicted by mode combination, of s 0 across a bond with 0.4-mm
adhesive thickness.
Bond length
Signal composition
Direction transmission only
共no reverberations, no damping兲
Direct transmission⫹1 set of
reverberations 共no damping兲
Direct transmission⫹2 sets of
reverberations 共no damping兲
Direct transmission⫹damping
Direct transmission⫹1 set of
reverberations⫹damping
Direct transmission⫹2 sets of
reverberations⫹damping
intuition, consistent with the logic of normal mode theory
published by Auld,14 and expressed also by Ditri42 when he
stated that a mode will not be excited if its field distribution
is orthogonal to the excitation field. Similarly we should ex-
pect that the carrier modes arriving at the end of the joint
will best convert to the s 0 mode in the receiver plate if their
mode shapes in the top layer are well matched to those of s 0 .
The S 1 and A 1 modes in either layer have very similar mode
shapes to the s 0 mode in the single plate, whereas the mode
shapes of the S 0 and A 0 modes are totally different. It is
therefore not surprising to see that the S 1 and A 1 modes
dominate in the overlap region.
From these findings we propose that a simplified, yet
insightful, analysis of the transmission behavior may be
achieved by assuming that the energy from an incident s 0
mode is transmitted through the overlap region solely by the
S 1 and A 1 carrier modes. Furthermore, these modes are
coupled to the incident and transmitted s 0 waves according
to the parts of their mode shapes which match the s 0 waves
at the ends of the overlap region. From similar arguments,
and utilizing knowledge of the mode shapes in Fig. 8, it
seems probable that we would also be able to predict the
dominant carrier modes for the other two incident modes of
interest, a 0 and a 1 . In both cases the displacements are an-
tisymmetric so the S 0 and A 0 modes should dominate. How-
ever, the detailed study of these other incident modes is not
pursued here.
The combination of the S 1 and A 1 contributions to the
total transmitted signal must take into account the different
speeds of these carrier modes in the overlap region and the
length of the overlap. This is because the two contributions
interfere, constructively or destructively, when they mode
convert to the s 0 mode in the receiver plate. The nature of
the interference depends on the relative phases of the contri-
butions of the two carrier modes to the s 0 mode at mode
conversion. The summation, incorporating the phases, can be
performed in the frequency domain using the expression
A⫽ 兩 A s 1 e i 共 ␻ t⫺k 1 x 兲 ⫹A A 1 e i 共 ␻ t⫺k 2 x 兲 兩 ,
where A is the resultant amplitude of the combined mode in
the receiver plate, A S 1 and A A 1 are the amplitudes of the s 0
mode due to the S 1 and A 1 carrier modes, respectively
1340 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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Power transmission coefficient 共dB兲
Bond length Bond length Bond length
10 mm 30 mm 100 mm 500 mm
⫺26 ⫺19 ⫺9.2 ⫺2.6
⫺22 ⫺16 ⫺7.6 ⫺2.1
⫺20 ⫺15 ⫺6.4 ⫺1.7
⫺27 ⫺20 ⫺11 ⫺9.9
⫺23 ⫺17 ⫺9.8 ⫺8.9
⫺21 ⫺16 ⫺9.4 ⫺8.9
共shown in Fig. 7兲, k 1 and k 2 are the wave numbers of the S 1
and A 1 modes, respectively, and x is the length of the over-
lap. All of the amplitudes and the wave numbers are fre-
quency dependent. Each of the two contributions incorpo-
rates, with the harmonic exponent, a phase which varies in
both distance and time, and so the summation must be car-
ried out with complex quantities. The sum is then itself an
harmonic function and the resultant amplitude A, which is
real valued, is expressed as its magnitude. It is assumed that
the mode conversion from the s 0 mode to each carrier mode
takes place without phase delay of the components in the
lower layer, and similarly when considering the mode con-
version from the carrier modes to the s 0 mode in the upper
layer; this is reasonable given the simplified description of
the mode conversion which has been adopted, as described
earlier. However, it is necessary to recognize that there can
be a phase difference between the components in the lower
and upper layers of the overlap region. For example, Fig. 8
shows that the in-plane displacement has the same sign in
both upper and lower plates for S 1 , but has opposite sign for
A 1 . Therefore, if both modes are generated equally such that
their displacements are in phase in the lower plate, their dis-
placements will be in opposite phase 共at the same location on
the joint兲 in the upper plate. To account correctly for this, a
phase delay of 180 deg must be applied to the A 1 mode when
performing the combinations calculations.
The first row of Table II shows power transmission co-
efficients for the 0.4-mm thick joint, for four different bond
lengths, predicted by combining the contributions of the S 1
and A 1 carrier modes according to Eq. 共2兲. It can be seen that
the strength of transmission increases markedly with the
bond length, just as was found in the full model results in
Fig. 4共a兲. This variation can be explained using the results of
the combination of the carrier mode contributions. It was
shown in Fig. 7 that the amplitudes of the contribution from
the S 1 and A 1 carrier modes are approximately equal. It was
also argued that a 180-deg phase shift must be applied to A 1
共2兲 in addition to any phase difference associated with their dif-
ferent propagation speeds. It follows that for a zero length
overlap the S 1 and A 1 contributions should cancel 共approxi-
mately兲, but as the length of the overlap is increased the
interference should change gradually from destructive to
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1340
 TABLE III. Transmission coefficients of s 0 at 625 kHz for four bond thick-
nesses. Overall figure is predicted value without reverberations or damping
for a joint with a bond length of 20 mm.

Transmission coefficient 共dB兲

Bond thickness 共mm兲 s 0 -S 1 -s 0 s 0 -A 1 -s 0 Overall

0.2 ⫺6.7 ⫺5.5 ⫺24.2

0.4 ⫺6.4 ⫺5.7 ⫺22.6
0.6 ⫺6.5 ⫺5.6 ⫺19.3
0.8 ⫺7.0 ⫺5.3 ⫺12.0

constructive. Thus the transmission should vary from weak

to strong as the bond length is increased. The maximum
transmission coefficient should occur when the interference
is entirely constructive, when the overlap length is such that
one of the waves has traveled half a wavelength more than
the other. At 625 kHz, the wave numbers of S 1 and A 1 are
0.1157 and 0.1170/mm, respectively, so the overlap length
would need to be about 400 mm for the maximum transmis-
sion 共neglecting damping兲. The remaining information in
Table II will be introduced later.
We can consider also the variation of the transmission
coefficient with the bond thickness. The finite element mod-
els which were used to predict the transmission coefficients
from the transmitter plate to the overlap region and from the
overlap region to the receiver plate were modified and rerun
for three more different thicknesses of the adhesive layer.
The transmission coefficients for each of the two carrier
modes, s 0 -S 1 -s 0 and s 0 -A 1 -s 0 , were then calculated and
their values at 625 kHz are shown, together with the earlier
values for the 0.4-mm joint, in Table III. The table also
shows their combination, using Eq. 共2兲, for a bond length of
20 mm.
It is clear from these results that the transmission by the
individual carrier modes is rather insensitive to the bond
thickness. Yet the overall transmission coefficient increases
with bond thickness, consistent with the plotted function in
Fig. 4共a兲. The reason for this is again the difference between
the wave numbers of the S 1 and A 1 modes and the resulting
interference between their contributions when mode convert-
ing to s 0 in the receiver plate. The wave numbers of these
modes at 625 kHz are shown for the four bond thicknesses in
Table IV. It can be seen that the difference between the wave
numbers increases as the bond thickness increases. Conse-
quently, the change of phase between the modes after trav-
eling the 20-mm length of the bond also increases, as shown.
The change of phase reduces the destructive interference,
thereby increasing the transmission coefficient.
Thus the simple analysis using Eq. 共2兲 demonstrates that
TABLE IV. Wave numbers of carrier modes at 625 kHz and changes of
phase between them after traveling 20 mm.
S1 A1 Change of phase
Bond thickness wave number wave number after 20 mm
共mm兲 共/mm兲 共/mm兲
0.2 0.1121 0.1112
0.4 0.1170 0.1157
0.6 0.1185 0.1169
0.8 0.1238 0.1196
FIG. 9. Amplitude spectra of transmitted s 0 mode across a joint with bond
length 500 mm, thickness 0.4 mm. Results shown for a finite element model
of the whole joint and prediction using mode combination. The reference
spectrum of incident mode is shown for comparison. Reverberations are
neglected.
the strength of transmission is determined by the interference
of the contributions from the two carrier modes, and that the
two parameters which most strongly affect this interference
are the overlap length and the wave number relationship be-
tween the two carrier modes.
An additional finite element simulation of transmission
across a whole joint was conducted specifically for compari-
son with these combined mode predictions. This model dif-
fered from the previous models only in its use of a large
overlap length of 500 mm so that reverberation signals
would separate in time and could therefore be gated out
when monitoring the signal in the receiver plate.
The results of the combined mode analysis and of the
full finite element analysis are compared in Fig. 9. The figure
shows the amplitude frequency spectra of the transmitted s 0
mode using the two methods, and also the spectrum of the
incident mode for reference, all plotted to the same scale. It
can be seen that the correlation between the two methods is
very good, implying that the combining model, although
simplified, is representative of the true behavior. The spectra
also show that at the center frequency 共coincidentally兲 there
is almost perfect transmission of the s 0 mode across the
joint, and that there are two frequencies within the band-
width at which the contributions due to S 1 and A 1 cancel,
resulting in null transmission.
Finally, a simplified prediction, using Eq. 共2兲, of the
power transmission coefficient for ranges of bond length and
bond thickness is presented in Fig. 10. In order to calculate
these coefficients, the transmission contributions of A 1 and
S 1 were assumed to be equal and independent of frequency.
共deg兲
Their wave numbers were also assumed to be independent of
frequency and were fixed to the values at the center fre-
6.5 quency of 625 kHz. The prediction was therefore very much
9.4
simplified but had the attraction of not being reliant on any
12
30 of the numerical results of the finite element studies. The
figure illustrates again the increase in the strength of the

1341 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000 Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1341

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FIG. 10. Predicted power transmission coefficient using simple mode com-
bination model.
transmission as either the bond length or the bond thickness
is increased. Furthermore, comparison with Fig. 4共a兲 shows
that the trends of this simplified prediction agree fairly well
with the full finite element modeling which represents wave
transmission across the whole structure with no decomposi-
tion into individual modes. The quantitative differences be-
tween the plots are due to the absence of reverberations in
the simplified analysis as well as the above assumptions.
C. Effects of reverberations and damping
So far the analysis of the phenomena has addressed only
the transmission in mode conversion at the ends of the over-
lap. However, reflection as well as transmission can take
place at both of these discontinuities, so that there can be
reverberation of the carrier modes along the length of the
joint between A and B 共Fig. 1兲. Thus the transmitted wave
which leaves the joint and propagates in the receiver plate is
followed by a succession of smaller signals from the rever-
berations, as seen earlier in the results of Fig. 3.
The consideration of reverberations is complicated by
the need to account for large numbers of combinations of
modes. In principle each mode can convert in various pro-
portions to all of the others on each occasion of incidence at
either end of the joint. For a single reverberation, which we
define as one extra round trip within the overlap region, there
are 64(⫽4 3 ) possible combinations of modes contributing to
the final transmitted signal. For example, using the terminol-
ogy which we introduced earlier, one such single reverbera-
tion signal is s 0 -A 1 -S 1 -A 1 -s 0 , in which the A 1 carrier mode
is excited in the overlap region, mode converts to S 1 on
reflection at the receiver end of the overlap, mode converts
back to A 1 on reflection at the transmitter end, and finally
excites s 0 in transmission on arrival back at the receiver end.
If double reverberations are considered, consisting of two
extra round trips in the overlap region, then there are 1024
(⫽4 5 ) possible combinations.
The building block for the study of the reverberation
behavior is the reflection coefficient of a carrier mode at an
end of the overlap region. Finite element analyses, using the
models of Fig. 6, were used to predict the 16 coefficients
given by the four possible incident carrier modes and four
1342 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 107, No. 3, March 2000
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FIG. 11. Amplitude spectra of transmitted s 0 mode across the joint of Fig. 9,
showing contribution solely from first reverberation. Results shown for a
finite element model of the whole joint and prediction using mode combi-
nation. Reference spectrum of incident mode is shown for comparison.
possible reflected carrier modes. Each reverberation combi-
nation could then be calculated by multiplying the relevant
coefficients. Considering the 64 single reverberations, it was
found that only 8 make a significant contribution. Not sur-
prisingly, bearing in mind the earlier findings of the direct
transmission, these are the eight combinations of the A 1 and
S 1 carrier modes. All eight of these have very similar trans-
mission coefficients, ranging from ⫺17 to ⫺18 dB. After
these eight, the next largest has a transmission coefficient of
⫺50 dB. Thus the single reverberations could be studied
sensibly using only eight combinations. Similarly, the double
reverberations could be studied using only 32 combinations.
Analyses of further reverberations involving more than two
round trips were not considered.
The overall transmission was again given by contribu-
tions of the combinations and their interference according to
Eq. 共2兲. In calculating these it was necessary to take care of
phase reversals at the mode conversion and between the
symmetric and antisymmetric modes.
Comparisons between the results of the finite element
model of the whole joint, with 500-mm overlap length, and
of the mode combining model for single reverberations, are
shown in Figs. 11 and 12. Figure 11 shows the transmission
spectra for the reverberation signal on its own. The results
are very encouraging, showing good agreement and confirm-
ing the validity of the mode combination approach. Figure
12 shows the spectra when the directly transmitted signal is
FIG. 12. Amplitude spectra of transmitted s 0 mode across joint of Fig. 9,
taking both direct and single reverberation signals into account. Results
shown for 共a兲 finite element model of the whole joint, 共b兲 prediction using
mode combination. Reference spectrum of incident mode is shown for com-
parison.
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1342
 also included. Here we can see the numerous local minima
which result from the spectral interference between the direct
signal and the reverberation signal. Good agreement between
the two methods is also demonstrated by the similarity be-
tween parts 共a兲 and 共b兲 of the figure. Although not shown,
equally good agreement was found when the double rever-
berations were taken into account.
The second and third rows of Table II show the predic-
tions, using mode combination, for the single and double
reverberations. It can be seen that there is an increase in the
contribution to the transmission as each set of reverberations
is added. Both the first and second sets are therefore seen to
be significant. The results also show that the transmission
coefficient consistently increases as the bond length is in-
creased, as was found in the finite element predictions in Fig.
4共a兲.
All of the modeling work so far has ignored any damp-
ing losses of the waves. This is a reasonable assumption for
the aluminum material but may not be for the adhesive layer.
If damping by the adhesive is significant, it will be particu-
larly influential on the reverberating modes because of their
additional distances of travel in the overlap region. It was
therefore considered to be useful to extend the analysis work
to incorporate some estimates of damping losses.
The attenuation of a carrier mode is in fact one of its
modal properties and it can be calculated if the bulk damping
properties of the materials are known. The bulk longitudinal
and shear attenuations in the adhesive material were taken to
be 1.3 dB wavelength and 2.4 dB/wavelength, respectively;
these are typical values for a hard epoxy such as Araldite
AV119, according to Challis and Cocker.8 When these were
included in the calculation of the modal solutions for the A 1
and S 1 modes it was found that moderate losses were pre-
dicted: at 625 kHz the amplitudes of A 1 and S 1 are reduced
by about 10% and 15%, respectively, in 100 mm of travel.
The introduction of these attenuation properties in the adhe-
sive has a negligible effect on the wave numbers and veloci-
ties of the modes.
These attenuation values were introduced into the calcu-
lation of the transmission coefficients simply by reducing the
amplitudes of the carrier modes according to their distances
traveled. Overall transmission coefficients for the s 0 mode,
calculated from the mode combination results, are given in
the last three rows of Table II. By comparing with the other
results in the table, it can be seen that the coefficients for all
cases are reduced by the damping in the adhesive layer, and
that, as should be expected, the damping has the greatest
influence when the joints have long bond lengths. It is also
evident that the damping reduces the relative contribution of
the reverberations to the overall transmission, in particular of
the second set. Indeed it seems that, with the exception of
very short bonds, the second set of reverberations makes
very little contribution. It is therefore improbable that third
or higher sets of reverberations would contribute signifi-
cantly in any realistic bonds.
IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
One of the stated objectives of the work was to investi-
gate the sensitivity of the transmission of Lamb waves across
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a lap joint to the dimensions of the joint. The motivation for
this is the possible development of a rapid technique for
performing quality checks on sheet metal bonding in-
process. Previous work published by Todd and Challis34 has
shown clearly that the dimensions of an adhesively bonded
T-joint have a significant influence on the transmission
across that type of joint. Their approach was to train a neural
network to categorize the joints from the very complicated
transmitted signals and they showed that the system could be
configured to make very reliable and rapid estimates of di-
mensions. The approach taken in this study of lap joints was
rather different, addressing the nature of the transmission
behavior in order to understand the factors which will affect
sensitivity and identify the most suitable testing conditions.
Having said this, however, the neural network may still re-
main the most appropriate technology for rapid in-process
inspection. The results of the finite element simulations,
shown in Fig. 4, demonstrate that the transmission is indeed
influenced by the two dimensions of the joint, bond length
and bond thickness. None of the modes shows an ideal
monotonic variation over the full ranges of the two param-
eters, but there are areas of sensitivity in all three graphs.
The appropriate selection for maximum sensitivity would de-
pend on the target dimensions of the joint being tested and
their expected variabilities. In general it is most likely that
the s 0 mode will be the most sensitive, particularly for bond
lengths up to about 15 mm. The lowest sensitivity is pre-
dicted when the bond is both very long and very thick.
Turning to the practical exploitation of these results, it is
clear that it is not possible to extract both dimensions from
the measurement of a single transmission coefficient, but a
measurement of one dimension may be feasible in many
cases if the other is known. This could arise if the construc-
tion procedure results in a much more precise control of one
dimension than the other. Failing this, two other alternatives
are suggested. First, a separate thickness measurement could
be made, for example using a normal incidence ultrasonic
measurement, at a single point in the overlap region. The
thickness is a lot easier to measure than the length and could
be monitored in this way without reducing the speed of the
inspection process. Thus the joint would still be monitored
without recourse to area scanning. The second possibility is
the exploitation of two different Lamb modes to give both of
the dimensions. Indeed this is implicitly achieved when a
neural network is used with a multimode signal. A two-mode
approach may be possible for certain ranges of the param-
eters where two of the modes are sensitive to the dimensions,
but the sensitivity of a 0 and a 1 is in general rather weak,
implying that the estimation may be poorly conditioned. In a
practical implementation it would also be necessary to con-
sider the influence of other parameters which have not been
considered in the work to date. These would include variabil-
ity of the material properties, the possibility of variations in
thickness over the overlap region, and the influence of ir-
regular details 共cusps in the adhesive for example兲 at the
ends of the overlap region.
The study of the nature of the transmission of the s 0
mode across the joint has revealed phenomena which are
both interesting and descriptive. The excitation of the ‘‘car-
Lowe et al.: Transmission of Lamb waves 1343

rier’’modes in the three-layer overlap region is governed by
the degree to which their mode shapes match the mode
shapes of the incident wave. In the case of the s 0 mode
incident, this results in significant energy being propagated
only in the S 1 and A 1 carrier modes, each with approxi-
mately the same amplitude. The transmission in the receiver
plate is then initiated by the combination of these two modes
when they arrive at the end of the overlap region and mode
convert in transmission to the s 0 mode. The strength of this
transmitted s 0 mode is determined by the summation of these
two components, which can be destructive or constructive,
according to their relative phases when the mode conversion
takes place. The bond length affects this summation because
the modes travel at different speeds and the distance of travel
therefore determines the phase difference between them. The
bond thickness affects the summation because it affects the
difference between the speeds of the carrier modes. Finally,
it has been shown that the complete transmitted signal is
composed of a series of transmitted signals, due to reverbera-
tions of the carrier modes in the overlap region, in addition
to the directly transmitted component. The contributions due
to reverberations are in general significant, particularly if the
adhesive material has low damping properties.
The analysis of the carrier modes also suggests that it
may be feasible to use the transmission measurements to
detect defects in the adhesive bond. The mode shapes of the
carrier modes, plotted in Fig. 8, show that all four carrier
modes generate significant strain in the adhesive layer. Al-
though not studied in detail here, the implication is that per-
turbations of the properties of the adhesive layer and its ad-
hesion to the aluminum layers are likely to affect the modal
properties of the carrier modes. Therefore if the bond dimen-
sions are well known then it may be possible to detect
anomalies in the bond line from measurements of the trans-
mission coefficient. The antisymmetric modes A 0 and A 1
induce shear strain in the bond line and may therefore be
sensitive to disbonded regions or reduced shear stiffness of
the adhesive. The symmetric modes S 0 and S 1 induce com-
pression of the adhesive and could therefore be sensitive to
changes in the bulk modulus of the adhesive.
Finally, as products of this work, we propose the utility
of the techniques presented here for the study of transmission
across bonded joints. The mode combination procedure pro-
vides insight to the physics of the transmission, indicating
the carrier modes which dominate in the transmission of the
energy. It also allows for the estimation of the transmission
coefficient for ranges of bond dimensions without the need to
perform multiple simulations of the whole joint. The ap-
proach for calculating the transmission coefficient using the
2D-FFT may be useful in general for measuring the strength
of a chosen mode in a multimode signal without the adverse
effects of interference which are encountered in the usual
measurements of peaks in time or frequency.
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