The nondestructive inspection (NDI) of components by means of guided waves is an emerging technology in aerospace. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) uses Lamb waves excited by air-coupled ultrasound for the quality assurance of large-scale aerospace vehicle components made from carbon composites. However, the use of guided waves in NDI requires knowledge of the dispersion curves. DISPERSE is the most renown software for the calculation of dispersion curves. Now, the Dispersion Calculator (DC) is available as a free software. The DC is an interactive and fully validated stand-alone software for the computation of dispersion curves and mode shapes of guided waves in isotropic materials and multilayered composites.
The DC features the particularly challenging capability of calculating laminates consisting of several hundreds of layers so that even the largest specimens, which we encounter in the rocket booster manufacturing, can be calculated. The DC is also able to distinguish the different mode families, like symmetric and antisymmetric Lamb and shear horizontal waves, and it features highly efficient and robust dispersion curve tracing algorithms. The DC can be downloaded free of charge, and it has already gained many users in the scientific community since its initial release in November 2018.