Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{204360,
        author = {Abdul Latheef Thalapil},
        title = {Guided Wave Based Identification of In-Plane Fibre Waviness Defect in A Honeycomb Composite Sandwich Structure Using Antisymmetric Modes},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {no},
        pages = {40-47},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=204360},
        abstract = {Waviness is a common geometrical defect in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) plates, characterized by local misalignment of an otherwise region of straight fibers. Presence of fiber waviness is a potential source of non-linearity and affects the relative strength of the composite structure. Recently, guided wave (GW) based in situ NDE techniques have been extensively used for damage detection in composite laminates, albeit for damages other than fiber waviness. This study explores the feasibility of using ultrasonic guided waves to characterize in- plane fiber waviness in honeycomb composite sandwich structures (HCSS). In-plane fiber waviness, a process-induced defect in carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP), introduces ply ripples that degrade structural strength. While guided wave methods are well established for detecting defects like delamination and disbond, their application for waviness characterization remains unexplored. The anti-symmetric A0 mode is employed to numerically investigate the influence of in-plane fiber waviness on guided wave propagation using the Curvilinear physics framework in a commercially available finite element (FE) modeling pack- age (COMSOL Multiphysics). Results show that in-plane fiber waviness causes a detectable phase shift in A0 mode, enabling localization within a network of PZT sensors by utilizing damage index (DI) mapping algorithm. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated using noise-augmented FE generated GW data set for an HCSS panel.},
        keywords = {Fibre waviness; ultrasonic guided wave; non- destructive testing; honeycomb composite sandwich structure (HCSS)},
        month = {June},
        }