Acoustic emission (AE) monitoring is a technique of growing interest in the field of nondestructive testing (NDT). The use of AE devices to monitor the health of structural components is currently limited by the cost of AE equipment, which prohibits the permanent placement of AE devices on structures for the purposes of continuous monitoring and the monitoring of areas with limited access. Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) can provide solutions to these problems. We present the manufacture of a 4.4-μm-thick lead zirconate titanate (PZT) film on a 110-μm-thick titanium foil substrate for use as an AE sensor. The thick-film sensor is benchmarked against commercially available AE sensors in static and dynamic monitoring applications. The thick-film AE device is found to perform well in the detection of AE in static applications. A low signal-to-noise ratio is found to prohibit the detection of AE in a dynamic application.
Monitoring the condition of complex engineering structures is an important aspect of modern engineering, eliminating unnecessary work and enabling planned maintenance, preventing failure. Acoustic emissions (AE) testing is one method of implementing continuous nondestructive structural health monitoring. A novel thick-film (17.6 μm) AE sensor is presented. Lead zirconate titanate thick films were fabricated using a powder/sol composite ink deposition technique and mechanically patterned to form a discrete thick-film piezoelectric AE sensor. The thick-film sensor was benchmarked against a commercial AE device and was found to exhibit comparable responses to simulated acoustic emissions.
Acoustic emission (AE) sensors are capable of detecting elastic waves emitted when cracks advance in engineering structures. To provide real time continuous monitoring, such sensors would have to remain permanently in place, but this is uneconomic and impractical to realise in many situations. The availability of low cost and small AE sensors is hampered by the poor piezoelectric properties of materials that can easily be processed and the processing challenges associated with materials that exhibit high piezoelectric properties. Here, a ZnO surface treatment for lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic particles is presented that enhances the interfacial bonding between PZT and polymer to allow mechanically robust composite films to be created that exhibit d 33 piezoelectric coefficient of 15 pC/N after corona poling at 100uC. Films of modified PZT-polymer material have been used to detect simulated acoustic emission events. A comparison between such devices and commercially available PZT ceramic based devices is drawn.
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