Modal analysis of Lamb wave generation in elastic plates by liquid wedge transducers

A modal analysis is presented to describe the excitation of Lamb waves in an elastic plate using a liquid wedge transducer. Analytical expression for the displacement of a given mode is derived for the excitation by a uniform bounded beam. In contrast to previous studies, the contribution of the reflected wave is included in the input exciting forces using a perturbation theory. The conversion efficiency, defined as the ratio of the guided mode power to the incident power, is related to a single parameter which depends on the rate of attenuation due to leakage from the guided wave into the liquid wedge. Numerical results relevant to the fundamental Lamb modes are obtained as a function of frequency for various incident beam widths and plate thickness. Using optical interferometric detection, direct measurements of the Lamb modes displacements have been carried out in aluminium plates to verify the theoretical analysis.