Elastic wave propagation in circumferential direction in anisotropic cylindrical curved plates

Ultrasonic nondestructive inspection of large-diameter pipes is important for health monitoring of ailing infrastructure. Longitudinal stress-corrosion cracks are detected more efficiently by inducing circumferential waves; hence, the study of elastic wave propagation in the circumferential direction in a pipe wall is essential. The current state of knowledge lacks a complete solution of this problem. Only when the pipe material is isotropic a solution of the wave propagation problem in the circumferential direction exists. Ultrasonic inspections of reinforced concrete pipes and pipes retrofitted by fiber composites necessitate the development of a new theoretical solution for elastic wave propagation in anisotropic curved plates in the circumferential direction. Mathematical modeling of the problem to obtain dispersion curves for curved anisotropic plates leads to coupled differential equations. Unlike isotropic materials for which the Stokes-Helmholtz decomposition technique simplifies the problem, in anisotropic case no such general decomposition technique works. These coupled differential equations are solved in this paper. Dispersion curves for anisotropic curved plates of different curvatures have been computed and presented. Some numerical results computed by the new technique have been compared with those available in the literature.