• Composites Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.61-67
• /
• 2004

Nondestructive damage sensitivity on single-basalt fiber/epoxy composites was evaluated by micromechanical technique and acoustic emission (AE). Piezoelectric lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) copolymer were used as AE sensor, respectively. In single-fiber composite, the damage sensing with different sensor types were compared to each other. Piezoelectric PVDF polymer sensor was embedded in and attached on the composite, whereas PZT sensor was only attached on the surface of specimen. In case of embedded polymer sensors, responding sensitivity was higher than that of the attached case. It can be due to full constraint inside specimen to transfer elastic wave coming from micro-deformation. For both the attached and the embedded cases, the sensitivity of P(VDF-TrFE) sensor was almost same as that of conventional PVDF sensor.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.227-239
• /
• 2020

Despite proven effectiveness and accuracy in laboratories, the existing damage assessment based on guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs) or acoustic emission (AE) confronts challenges when extended to real-world structural health monitoring (SHM) for railway tracks. Central to the concerns are the extremely complex signal appearance due to highly dispersive and multimodal wave features, restriction on transducer installations, and severe contaminations of ambient noise. It remains a critical yet unsolved problem along with recent attempts to implement SHM in bourgeoning high-speed railway (HSR). By leveraging authors' continued endeavours, an SHM framework, based on actively generated diffuse ultrasonic waves (DUWs) and a benchmark-free condition contrast algorithm, has been developed and deployed via an all-in-one SHM system. Miniaturized lead zirconate titanate (PZT) wafers are utilized to generate and acquire DUWs in long-range railway tracks. Fatigue cracks in the tracks show unique contact behaviours under different conditions of external loads and further disturb DUW propagation. By contrast DUW propagation traits, fatigue cracks in railway tracks can be characterised quantitatively and the holistic health status of the tracks can be evaluated in a real-time manner. Compared with GUW- or AE-based methods, the DUW-driven inspection philosophy exhibits immunity to ambient noise and measurement uncertainty, less dependence on baseline signals, use of significantly reduced number of transducers, and high robustness in atrocious engineering conditions. Conformance tests are performed on HSR tracks, in which the evolution of fatigue damage is monitored continuously and quantitatively, demonstrating effectiveness, adaptability, reliability and robustness of DUW-driven SHM towards HSR applications.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.91-99
• /
• 2012

The main objective of this study is to examine the feasibility of using lead zirconate titanate (PZT)'s direct piezoelectric response as vibrational feature for damage monitoring in beam structures. For the purpose, modal strain energy (MSE)-based damage monitoring in beam structures using dynamic strain response based on the direct piezoelectric effect of PZT sensor is proposed in this paper. The following approaches are used to achieve the objective. First, the theoretical background of PZT's direct piezoelectric effect for dynamic strain response is presented. Next, the damage monitoring method that utilizes the change in MSE to locate of damage in beam structures is outlined. For validation, forced vibration tests are carried out on lab-scale cantilever beam. For several damage scenarios, dynamic responses are measured by three different sensor types (accelerometer, PZT sensor and electrical strain gage) and damage monitoring tasks are performed thereafter. The performance of PZT's direct piezoelectric response for MSE-based damage monitoring is evaluated by comparing the damage localization results from the three sensor types.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.7
• /
• pp.462-468
• /
• 2018

The piezoelectric energy harvesting characteristics of a trapezoidal cantilever generator with lead zirconate titanate (PZT) laminate were investigated with various Ag inner electrodes. The piezoelectric mode of operation was a transverse mode by using a planar electrode pattern. The piezoelectric cantilever generator was fabricated using trapezoidal cofired-PZT/Ag laminates by five specimens of 2, 3, 4, 7, and 13 layers of Ag. As the number of Ag electrodes increased, impedance and output voltage at resonant frequency significantly decreased, and capacitance and output current showed an increasing tendency. A maximum output power density of $7.60mW/cm^3$ was realized for the specimen with seven Ag layers in the optimal condition of acceleration (1.2 g) and resistive load ($600{\Omega}$), which corresponds to a normalized power factor of $5.28mW/g^2{\cdot}cm^3$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.135-138
• /
• 2004

Conventional piezoelectric lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) senor has high sensitivity, but it is very brittle. Recently polymer films such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and poly(vinylidene fluoride­trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) copolymer have been used as a sensor. The advantages of polymer sensor are the flexibility and mechanical toughness. Simple process and possible several shapes are also additional advantages. Polymer sensor can be directly embedded in a structure. In this study, nondestructive damage sensitivity of single basalt fiber/epoxy composites was investigated with sensor type and thermal damage using AE and oscilloscope. And AE waveform for epoxy matrix with various damage types was compared to each other. The damage sensitivity of two polymer sensors was rather lower than that of PZT sensor. The damage sensitivity of PVDF sensor did not decrease until thermal damage temperature at $80^{\circ}C$ and they decreased significantly at $110^{\circ}C$ However, the damage sensitivity of P(VDF-TrFE) sensor at $110^{\circ}C$ was almost same in no damage sensor. For both top and side impacts, the difference in arrival time increased with increasing internal and surface damage density of epoxy matrix.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.319-338
• /
• 2015

The electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique makes use of surface-bonded lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patches as impedance transducers measuring impedance variations monitored on host structural components. The present experimental work further evaluate an alternative to the conventional EMI technique which performs measurements of the variations in the output voltage of PZT transducers rather than computing electromechanical impedance (or admittance) itself. This paper further evaluates a variant of the EMI approach presented in a previous work of the present authors, suitable, for low-cost concrete structures monitoring applications making use of a credit card-sized Raspberry Pi single board computer as core hardware unit. This monitoring approach is also deployed by introducing a new damage identification index based on the ratio between the area of the 2-D error ellipse of specific probability of EMI-based measurements containment over that of the 2-D error circle of equivalent probability. Experimental results of damages occurring in concrete cubic and beam specimens are investigated under increasing loading conditions. Results illustrate that the proposed technique is an efficient approach for identification and early detection of damage in concrete structures.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.8
• /
• pp.501-507
• /
• 2017

A unimorph piezoelectric cantilever generator with an interdigitated electrode (IDE) was developed for vibration energy harvester applications driven in the longitudinal mode. Hard lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic with a high $Q_m$ of 1,280 was used as the piezoelectric active material. Ten PZT sheets produced by tape casting were laminated and co-fired with an Ag/Pd IDE at $1,050^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The approximately $280{\mu}m$-thick co-fired PZT laminate with the IDE was attached to a stainless steel substrate with an adhesive epoxy for the fabrication of an IDE unimorph cantilever. Its energy harvesting characteristics were evaluated: an output power of $1.1{\mu}W$ at 120 Hz across the resistive load of $700k{\Omega}$ was obtained, corresponding to a normalized power factor of $4.1{\mu}W/(G^2{\cdot}cm^3)$.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.135-150
• /
• 2015

Large concrete structures are prone to cracks and damages over time from human usage, weathers, and other environmental attacks such as flood, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The health of the concrete structures should be monitored regularly to ensure safety. A reliable method of real time communications can facilitate more frequent structural health monitoring (SHM) updates from hard to reach positions, enabling crack detections of embedded concrete structures as they occur to avoid catastrophic failures. By implementing an unconventional mode of communication that utilizes guided stress waves traveling along the concrete structure itself, we may be able to free structural health monitoring from costly (re-)installation of communication wires. In stress-wave communications, piezoelectric transducers can act as actuators and sensors to send and receive modulated signals carrying concrete status information. The new generation of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based smart aggregates cause multipath propagation in the homogeneous concrete channel, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge for multiple sensors communication. We propose a time reversal based pulse position modulation (TR-PPM) communication for stress wave communication within the concrete structure to combat multipath channel dispersion. Experimental results demonstrate successful transmission and recovery of TR-PPM using stress waves. Compared with PPM, we can achieve higher data rate and longer link distance via TR-PPM. Furthermore, TR-PPM remains effective under low signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. This work also lays the foundation for implementing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) stress wave communication networks in concrete channels.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.6 no.5_6
• /
• pp.749-765
• /
• 2010

There are on-going efforts to utilize guided waves for structural damage detection. Active sensing devices such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) have been widely used for guided wave generation and sensing. In addition, there has been increasing interest in adopting wireless sensing to structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. One of major challenges in wireless SHM is to secure power necessary to operate the wireless sensors. However, because active sensing devices demand relatively high electric power compared to conventional passive sensors such as accelerometers and strain gauges, existing battery technologies may not be suitable for long-term operation of the active sensing devices. To tackle this problem, a new wireless power transmission paradigm has been developed in this study. The proposed technique wirelessly transmits power necessary for PZT-based guided wave generation using laser and optoelectronic devices. First, a desired waveform is generated and the intensity of the laser source is modulated accordingly using an electro-optic modulator (EOM). Next, the modulated laser is wirelessly transmitted to a photodiode connected to a PZT. Then, the photodiode converts the transmitted light into an electric signal and excites the PZT to generate guided waves on the structure where the PZT is attached to. Finally, the corresponding response from the sensing PZT is measured. The feasibility of the proposed method for wireless guided wave generation has been experimentally demonstrated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.6 no.5_6
• /
• pp.675-687
• /
• 2010

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the science and technology of monitoring and assessing the condition of aerospace, civil and mechanical infrastructures using a sensing system integrated into the structure. Impedance-based SHM measures impedance of a structure using a PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate) patch. This paper presents a low-power wireless autonomous and active SHM node called Autonomous SHM Sensor 2 (ASN-2), which is based on the impedance method. In this study, we incorporated three methods to save power. First, entire data processing is performed on-board, which minimizes radio transmission time. Considering that the radio of a wireless sensor node consumes the highest power among all modules, reduction of the transmission time saves substantial power. Second, a rectangular pulse train is used to excite a PZT patch instead of a sinusoidal wave. This eliminates a digital-to-analog converter and reduces the memory space. Third, ASN-2 senses the phase of the response signal instead of the magnitude. Sensing the phase of the signal eliminates an analog-to-digital converter and Fast Fourier Transform operation, which not only saves power, but also enables us to use a low-end low-power processor. Our SHM sensor node ASN-2 is implemented using a TI MSP430 microcontroller evaluation board. A cluster of ASN-2 nodes forms a wireless network. Each node wakes up at a predetermined interval, such as once in four hours, performs an SHM operation, reports the result to the central node wirelessly, and returns to sleep. The power consumption of our ASN-2 is 0.15 mW during the inactive mode and 18 mW during the active mode. Each SHM operation takes about 13 seconds to consume 236 mJ. When our ASN-2 operates once in every four hours, it is estimated to run for about 2.5 years with two AAA-size batteries ignoring the internal battery leakage.