• Composites Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.49-55
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• 2011

The use of advanced composite materials in main structures of military and civil aircraft has been increased rapidly because of their considerable metals in high specific strength and stiffness. However, the mechanical properties of composite materials may severely degrade in the presence of damage. Especially, the high-velocity impact such as a hailstorm, and a small piece of tire or stone during high taxing, can cause considerable damage to the structures and sub-system in spite of a very small mass. However, it is not easy to detect the damage in composite plates using a single sensor or any conventional methods. In this paper, the PVDF sensors and AE sensors were used for monitoring high-velocity impact damage initiation and propagation in composite laminates. The WT(wavelet transform) is used to decompose the sensor signals. In the PVDF sensor and AE sensor signal analysis, amounts of high-frequency signals are increased when the impact energy is increased. PVDF sensor and AE sensor signal appeared similar results. This study shows how various sensing techniques can be used to characterize high-velocity impact damage of advanced composite laminates.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.436-444
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• 2016

Uniformity in transducer performance is a must-have to ensure the reliable acoustic performance of a tile projector, used for active echo reduction. However, practical limitations imposed by variations in material properties and fabrication errors lead to performance variations among unit transducers, which could degrade the radiation characteristics (transmitting voltage response and directivity) of the tile projector and ultimately the echo reduction performance. In this paper we present a method to minimize these adverse effects via an appropriate placement of unit transducers within the tile projector. To this end, we perform a series of coupled acoustic-piezoelectric simulations, assuming a group of 36 unit transducers having 6 dB variations in transmitting voltage response, to analyze and compare the radiation characteristics of tile projectors under different transducer placement schemes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 2016

This paper presents a new technique for monitoring the concrete curing process using embedded piezoelectric transducers via admittance measurements. When a piezoelectric transducer is embedded in a structure, the electrical impedance (admittance) of the transducer is coupled with the mechanical impedance of the host structure, which allows monitoring of the structural condition. In this study, the admittance signatures are used for monitoring the concrete curing process. This new method is based on an admittance-based sensor diagnostic process, in which the capacitance values of the piezoelectric transducers are dependent on the strength of the host structure. We numerically and experimentally investigated the variations in capacitive value during the curing process. The results demonstrate that there is a clear relationship between the concrete curing status and the slope, this indicates that the proposed method could be efficiently used for monitoring the curing status of a concrete structure.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 2019

Flexible impact force sensors composed of piezoelectric PZT/PDMS composite sandwiched between Al/PET films were fabricated and their voltage signal characteristics were evaluated under varying impact forces for electronic mitt applications. The piezoelectric impact force sensor on an ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) substrate exhibited an output voltage difference of no greater than 40 mV a periodical impact test in with the impact load was increased by as much as 240 N by a restoration time of 5 s in a five-time experiment, implying good sensing ability. Moreover, the impact force sensor embedded four electronic mitts showed a reliable sensitivity of less than 1 mV/N and good repeatability under 100 N-impact force during a cycle test executed 10,000 times. This indicated that the fabricated flexible piezoelectric impact sensor could be used in electronic mitt applications. However, the relatively low elastic limit of substrate material such as EVA or poly-urethane slightly deteriorated the sensitivity of the impact sensor embedded electronic mitt at over 200 N-impact forces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.577-592
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• 2023

In this study, nanofiber-based textile sensors were developed for motion detection and monitoring. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers containing zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and silver nanowires (AgNW) were fabricated using electrospinning. PVDF was chosen as a piezoelectric polymer, zinc oxide as a piezoelectric ceramic, and AgNW as a metal to improve electric conductivity. The PVDF/ZnO/AgNW nanocomposite fibers were used to develop a textile sensor, which was then incorporated into an elbow band to develop a wearable smart band. Changes in the output voltage and peak-to-peak voltage (V_p-p) generated by the joint's flexion and extension were investigated using a dummy elbow. The β-phase crystallinity of pure PVDF nanofibers was 58% when analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; however, the β-phase crystallinity increased to 70% in PVDF nanofibers containing ZnO and to 78% in PVDF nanocomposite fibers containing both ZnO and AgNW. The textile sensor's output voltage values varied with joint-bending angle; upon increasing the joint angle from 45° to 90° to 150°, the V_p-p value increased from 0.321 V_p-p to 0.542 V_p-p to 0.660 V_p-p respectively. This suggests that the textile sensor can be used to detect and monitor body movements.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.238-245
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• 2023

0.75(Bi_1/2Na_1/2)TiO₃-0.25SrTiO₃ (BNT-25ST) ceramics with high densities were successfully prepared at a sintering temperature of 1,000℃ by adding a mixture of 1 mol% CuO and 0.5 mol% Na₂CO₃ or 0.5 mol% CuO and 0.25 mol% Na₂CO₃. Double polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis curves and sprout-shaped bipolar strain-electric field (S-E) hysteresis curves with small negative strains were observed in the pristine and CuO-added BNT-25ST ceramics whereas the Na₂CO₃-added sample showed similar P-E and S-E curves to a typical ferroelectric. The pristine BNT-25ST ceramics showed an extremely large strain and a large-signal piezoelectric strain constant (d₃₃^*): 0.287 % at 80 kV/cm and 850 pm/V at 20 kV/cm. Similar values, 0.248 % at 80 kV/cm and 655 pm/V at 20 kV/cm, were obtained in the CuO-added sample. However, the pristine and CuO-added samples showed large hysteresis in unipolar S-E curves at an electric field of less than 20 kV/cm. The Na₂CO₃-added sample showed smaller values of the strain and d₃₃^* but displayed a linear change and small hysteresis in the unipolar S-E curve. The co-added sample with CuO and Na₂CO₃ displayed intermediate P-E and S-E hysteresis curves.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.955-960
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• 2012

We fabricated piezoelectric unimorph cantilever generators (UCG) using $Pb(Zr_{0.54}Ti_{0.46})O_3$ + 0.2 wt% $Cr_2O_3$ + 1.0 wt% $Nb_2O_5$ (PZCN) piezoelectric thick films, which were produced by a tape casting method. The PZCN thick films were tailored with same width and thickness but different lengths from 7.7 to 57.7 mm in order to evaluate optimized UCG for energy harvesting device applications. When the length of PZCN film was increased, the resonance frequency of UCG was slightly increased from 7 Hz to 8 Hz, which could be due to enlarged area of the highly stiff piezo-ceramic film. However, the output power was proportionally increased with the length of PZCT film and it reached 4.68 mW (1.221 $mW/cm^3$) when the film's length was 57.7 mm under 25 g of tip mass at 8 Hz, which is sufficient for micro-scale device applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.263-269
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• 2017

A piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester (PCEH) driven in longitudinal (3-3) vibration mode was fabricated, and its electrical properties were evaluated by varying the resistive load. A commercial PZT piezoelectric ceramic with a high piezoelectric charge constant ($d_{33}$) of 520 pC/N and the interdigitated (IDT) electrode pattern was used to fabricate the PCEH driven in longitudinal vibration. The IDT Ag electrode embedded piezoelectric laminates were co-fired at $850^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The 3-3 mode PCEH was successfully fabricated by attaching the piezoelectric laminates to a SUS304 elastic substrate. The PCEH exhibited a high output power of 3.8 mW across the resistive load of $100k{\Omega}$ at 100 Hz and 1.5 G. This corresponds to a power density of $10.3mW/cm^3$ and a normalized global power factor of $4.56mW/g^2{\cdot}cm^3$. Given the other PCEH driven in transverse (3-1) vibration mode, the 3-3 mode PCEH could be better for vibration energy harvesting applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.563-567
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• 2011

The most widely used piezoelectric ceramics are lead oxide based ferroelectrics (PZT). However, the toxicity of lead oxide and its high vapor pressure during processing have led to a demand for alternative lead-free piezoelectric materials. We synthesized Lead-free piezoelectric ceramics of $0.96(K_{0.5}Na_{0.5})NbO_3-0.04SrZrO_3+x$ mol% $ZrO_2$ [KNN-SZ+$xZrO_2$; x= 0~0.10] doped with 0.1 wt% $MnO_2$ by a conventional solid state method. We investigated the piezoelectric properties and microstructures of these disk samples sintered in reduced atmosphere in order to evaluate the possibility of the multilayered piezoelectric ceramics having the base metal such as Ni as a internal electrode. All of these KNN-SZ samples sintered in 3%$H_2-97%N_2$ atmosphere at $1,140^{\circ}C$ exhibit pure perovskite structure irrespective of the content of $ZrO_2$. Meanwhile, the sintering denisty and piezoelectric properties such as $K_p$, $Q_m$ and $d_{33}$ of KNN-SZ samples as a function of $ZrO_2$ content show the maxima ($k_p$=28.07%, $Q_m$= 101.34, $d_{33}$= 156 pC/N) at x= 0.04 and it is likely that there is some morphotropic phase boundary(MPB) in this KNN-SZ+$xZrO_2$ composition system. These results indicate that the ceramic composition is a promising candidate material for applications in lead free multilayer piezoelectric ceramics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.707-711
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• 2014

The $0.99Bi_{0.5}(Na_{0.78}K_{0.22})_{0.5}TiO_3-0.01LaAlO_3$, $0.01LaMnO_3$ or $0.01LaFeO_3$ (0.99BNKT-0.01LA, 0.01LM or 0.01LF) ceramics were prepared by a conventional mixed mothod. The structure and morphology of the lead free ceramics were characterized by XRD (X-ray diffraction) and FE-SEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy). XRD results indicated that the BNKT ceramics modified by LA, LM or LF induced a transition from a ferroelectric tetragonal to a non-polar pseudo-cubic phase, leading to decrease in the remnant polarization ($P_r$) and coercive field ($E_c$) in the P-E hysterisis loops. The effects of the BNKT ceramics modified by La-based $ABO_3$ pervskite structure on the electric-field induced strain were investigated, and the largest normalized unipolar strain ($S_{max}/E_{max}$) was found in BNKT-0.01LF ceramic.