Abstract
The elastic waves in the plate are dispersive waves with the characteristics of Lamb waves. However, $S_0$ symmetric mode is less dispersive in the frequency region less than first cut-off frequency. And, in anisotropic plates such as CFRP plates, the propagation velocities vary with the direction. So, the wave vector direction to be the phase velocity direction is not accord with the energy flow direction to be the group velocity direction. In this work, the group velocities of the $S_0$ symmetric mode less than the first cut-off frequency was analyzed with the group velocity dispersion curves in unidirectional CFRP plate. And, the group velocity curve obtained by the group velocity dispersion curves are compared with the measured velocities as varied the propagation direction of the Lamb wave. The measured velocities are good agreement with the corrected group velocity curve except near the fiber direction which is called the cusp region. When the propagation direction is not accorded with the principal axis, the direction of the group velocities declines to the fiber direction in the unidirectional CFRP plates. This implies that the energy propagates preferentially toward fiber direction.
