Acoustic emission sources in a cross-ply laminated plate

The transient response of a fibre composite laminated plate due to a variety of impulsive line loads is examined. These loads act either on the outer surfaces or at an interface within the plate. The resulting straight crested waves travel through the plate in a direction at right angles to the load line. The analysis is based on taking a double transform of the displacement and stress components and solving the equations of motion subject to the appropriate boundary and interface conditions. An approximate numerical inversion technique is used to recover the solution to the problem. The results are in the form of graphs displaying the time histories of the normal surface displacement at epicentre and at distances varying from one to ten plate thicknesses.