Direct-Write Piezoelectric Transducers on Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Structures for Exciting and Receiving Guided Ultrasonic Waves

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Direct-Write Piezoelectric Transducers on Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Structures for Exciting and Receiving Guided Ultrasonic Waves
Title:
Direct-Write Piezoelectric Transducers on Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Structures for Exciting and Receiving Guided Ultrasonic Waves
Journal Title:
IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
Publication Date:
14 April 2021
Citation:
Philibert, M., Chen, S., Wong, V.-K., Yao, K., Soutis, C., & Gresil, M. (2021). Direct-Write Piezoelectric Transducers on Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Structures for Exciting and Receiving Guided Ultrasonic Waves. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 68(8), 2733–2740. doi:10.1109/tuffc.2021.3073131
Abstract:
Advancements in the structural health monitoring (SHM) technology of composite materials are of paramount importance for early detection of critical damage. In this work, direct-write ultrasonic transducers (DWTs) were designed for the excitation and reception of selective ultrasonic guided waves and fabricated by spraying 25 μm thick piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TRFE)) coating with a comb-shaped electrode on carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates. The characteristics and performance of the ultrasonic DWTs were benchmarked with the state-of-the-art devices, discrete lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic transducers surface-mounted on the same CFRP plates. The DWTs exhibited improved Lamb wave mode excitation (A0 or S0 mode) relative to the discrete PZT transducers. Moreover, high signal-to-noise ratio was obtained by effectively cancelling other modes and enhancing the directivity with the periodic comb-shaped electrode design of the DWTs, despite the smaller signal amplitudes. The enhanced directivity overcompensates for lower amplitude attenuation, making DWT a good candidate for locally monitoring critical stress hot-spot regions in the CFRP structure prone to early damage initiation. Further, it is shown that pairing a DWT sensor with a discrete PZT actuator could further achieve balanced performance in both wave mode selection and signal amplitudes, making this combination really attractive for ultrasonic SHM.
License type:
Publisher Copyright
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the A*STAR - Industry Alignment Fund-Pre-Positioning (IAF-PP)
Grant Reference no. : A20F5a0043

This research / project is supported by the A*STAR - SERC Strategic Funds (SSF)
Grant Reference no. : A1718g0056

This research / project is supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore - Competitive Research Programme of Singapore
Grant Reference no. : CRP15 2015 04
Description:
© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works
ISSN:
0885-3010
1525-8955
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