• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.23-42
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• 2009

In order to reduce vibration or to control shape of structures made of metal or composites, piezoelectric materials have been extensively used since their discovery in 1880's. A recent trend is also seen to apply piezoelectric materials to flexible structures made of rubber-like materials. In this paper a non-linear finite element model using updated Lagrangian (UL) approach has been developed for static analysis of rubber-elastic material with surface-bonded piezoelectric patches. A compressible stain energy function has been used for modeling the rubber as hyperelastic material. For formulation of the nonlinear finite element model a twenty-node brick element is used. Four degrees of freedom u, v and w and electrical potential ${\varphi}$ per node are considered as the field variables. PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) patches are applied as sensors/actuators or sensors and actuators. The present model has been applied to bimorph PVDF cantilever beam to validate the formulation. It is then applied to study the smart rubber components under different boundary and loading conditions. The results predicted by the present formulation are compared with the analytical solutions as well as the available published results. Some results are given as new ones as no published solutions available in the literatures to the best of the authors' knowledge.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.205-215
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• 2019

A flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite prototype with high piezoelectricity and force sensitivity was constructed, and its huge potential for applications such as biomechanical energy harvesting, self-powered health monitoring system, and pressure sensors was proved. The crystallization, piezoelectric, and electrical properties of the composites were characterized using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiment and customized experimental setups. The composite can sustain up to 100% strain, which is a huge improvement over monolithic PVDF fibers and other PVDF-based composites in the literature. The Young's modulus is 1.64 MPa, which is closely matched with the flexibility of the human skin, and shows the possibility for integrating PVDF/PDMS composites into wearable devices and implantable medical devices. The $300{\mu}m$ thick composite has a 14% volume fraction of PVDF fibers and produces high piezoelectricity with piezoelectric charge constants $d_{31}=19pC/N$ and $d_{33}=34pC/N$, and piezoelectric voltage constants $g_{31}=33.9mV/N$ and $g_{33}=61.2mV/N$. Under a 10 Hz actuation, the output voltage was measured at 190 mVpp, which is the largest output signal generated from a PVDF fiber-based prototype.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.152-155
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• 2018

Ultrasonic wave technologies have been widely used in ultrasonic washing machines, ultrasonic surgery, ultrasonic welding machines, ultrasonic sensors, and medical instruments. Ultrasonic surgery can be realized through the cavitation effect of ultrasonic waves. In this study, piezoelectric ceramics were manufactured to achieve the optimum design of a piezoelectric vibrator in a handheld generator for ultrasonic surgery. The best specimen showed the excellent piezoelectric properties of kp＝0.624, Qm＝1,531, and $d_{33}=356pC/N$. Numerical modeling based on the finite element method was performed to find the resonance frequency, the anti-resonance frequency, and the displacement properties of the handheld ultrasonic generator. Maximum displacement was observed in the six-step piezoelectric vibrator at $6.36{\mu}m$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.199-206
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• 2015

This paper deals with the vibration characteristics of stacked transducers composed of piezoelectric discs, which are main elements of ultrasonic sensors or actuators. The stacked transducers were devised in the sense of natural frequencies. Two- or three-layer transducers were fabricated with piezoelectric discs of different diameters. The natural frequencies were determined by the finite element analysis and they were verified by comparing them with experimental results. It appeared that the natural frequencies of the stacked piezoelectric transducers include the natural frequencies of the constituent piezoelectric discs and the natural frequencies caused by stacking. Based on these results, it would be possible to predict the vibration characteristics of the stacked piezoelectric transducers in a design process.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.266-284
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• 2010

Piezoelectric materials have become the most attractive functional materials for sensors and actuators in smart structures because they can directly convert mechanical energy to electrical energy and vise versa. They have excellent electromechanical coupling characteristics and excellent frequency response. In this article, the research activities and achievements on the applications of piezoelectric materials in smart structures in China, including vibration control, noise control, energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, and hysteresis control, are introduced. Special attention is given to the introduction of semi-active vibration suppression based on a synchronized switching technique and piezoelectric fibers with metal cores for health monitoring. Such mechanisms are relatively new and possess great potential for future applications in aerospace engineering.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.447-452
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• 2016

In this study, we fabricated and evaluated the performance of film speaker using PVDF/ZnO NP composite structure. PVDF piezoelectric films were fabricated and characterized by XRD and SEM. ZnO nanopillars were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis on prepared PVDF piezoelectric films. We analyzed and tested the acoustic signal characteristics of the piezoelectric film. In order to fabricate an acoustic structure with a wide frequency range from low to high frequency, we have fabricated various types of film speakers and investigated the frequency characteristics. As a result, the fundamental piezoelectric properties of PVDF show that the piezoelectric constant due to ZnO NP increases. And the overall acoustic signal level is also increased by 10% or more. We investigated frequency generation from 500 Hz to 10 KHz using different sizes with PVDF/ZnO NP composite film speaker.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 2018

High-sensitivity signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) microphones are essentially required for a broad range of automatic speech recognition applications. Piezoelectric microphones have several advantages compared to conventional capacitor microphones including high stiffness and high SNR. In this study, we designed a new piezoelectric membrane structure by using the finite elements method (FEM) and an optimization technique to improve the sensitivity of the transducer, which has a high-quality AlN piezoelectric thin film. The simulation demonstrated that the sensitivity critically depends on the inner radius of the top electrode, the outer radius of the membrane, and the thickness of the piezoelectric film in the microphone. The optimized piezoelectric transducer structure showed a much higher sensitivity than that of the conventional piezoelectric transducer structure. This study provides a visible path to realize micro-scale high-sensitivity piezoelectric microphones that have a simple manufacturing process, wide range of frequency and low DC bias voltage.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.148-154
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• 2015

In order to detect damage in early stages and properly maintaining structures, the structural health monitoring technology is employed. In most cases, active-sensing SHM needs many piezoelectric (PZT) sensors and actuators. Thus, if there is a defect on PZT used for active-sensing SHM, the structural status could be misclassified. This study, for reliable SHM performance, investigated to detect defects of sensors by using the admittance-based sensor diagnostics. This study also introduced an algorithm that can diagnose sensor defects based only on data measured from the sensors in case that information about the changes in adhesive and environmental investigation, this study confirms that the proposed algorithm could be efficiently applied to real-world structures in which a significant temperature variation could take place.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1361-1368
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• 2020

The system for counting the number of people has traditionally been implemented in various ways. Existing systems include infrared sensors, lasers, cameras, etc. In the case of such an existing system, there are restrictions on space such as ceilings and sides of walls. In this paper, we propose a method of detecting the footsteps of pedestrians using a piezoelectric mat containing a number of piezoelectric sensors and counting the number of pedestrians passing simultaneously by using the data collected from the piezoelectric mat. When pedestrians pass over piezoelectric mats, the collected sensor data was aggregated using SPI communication and transmitted to PC server using TCP/IP communication. Performance analysis shows that approximately 600 step data can be recognized with 99% accuracy. This is to overcome the shortcomings of other counting systems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.263-263
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• 2007

In the future, self-contained sensors and processing units will need on-board, renewable power supplies to be truly autonomous. One way of supplying such power is through energy harvesting, processes by which ambient forms of energy are converted into electricity. One energy harvesting technique involves converting kinetic energy, in the form of vibrations, into electrical energy through the use of piezoelectric materials. Researchers are currently investigating how piezoelectric materials can be used to harvest power. This study examines the use of auxiliary structures, consisting of a mechanical fixture and a lead zirconate/lead titanate (PZT) piezoelectric element, which can be attached to any boundary conditions vibrating beam of the any boundary conditions. Adjusting various boundary conditions of these structures can maximize the strain induced in the attached PZT element and improve power output.