A critical note on the sideband peak count-index technique: Failure for nonlinear damage characterization of impacted CFRP plates

It is widely accepted, that nonlinear elastodynamic methods are superior to linear methods in detecting early stages of material deterioration. A number of recently developed methods based on counting spectral peaks are reported to be simple, robust but nevertheless very sensitive to nonlinearities and thus appropriate to indicate early damage. We applied systematically one of the methods, the sideband peak count index (SPC-I), to a series of increasingly damaged carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) plates. Our data leads to other conclusions. The SPC-I values are influenced by (usually undocumented) variations in the index calculation procedure, which is not acceptable for a robust method. Moreover, the behavior of the index when the ultrasound amplitude is varied excludes material nonlinearity as a direct and significant contributor to the index value. To clarify the apparent contradiction of our results with the previously published statements, it is recommended that (a) our data is re-evaluated by independent researchers and (b) the experiments already published are repeated or (if sufficient data is available) re-evaluated as well.