In this paper, some recent piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) progress achieved in our laboratory for active materials and smart structures (LAMSS) at the University of South Carolina: http: //www.me.sc.edu/research/lamss/ group is presented. First, the characterization of the PWAS materials shows that no significant change in the microstructure after exposure to high temperature and nuclear radiation, and the PWAS transducer can be used in harsh environments for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. Next, PWAS active sensing of various damage types in aluminum and composite structures are explored. PWAS transducers can successfully detect the simulated crack and corrosion damage in aluminum plates through the wavefield analysis, and the simulated delamination damage in composite plates through the damage imaging method. Finally, the novel use of PWAS transducers as acoustic emission (AE) sensors for in situ AE detection during fatigue crack growth is presented. The time of arrival of AE signals at multiple PWAS transducers confirms that the AE signals are originating from the crack, and that the amplitude decay due to geometric spreading is observed.
In this article, estimation of crack size, shape, and orientation was investigated numerically and experimentally using Lamb waves. A hybrid global–local approach was used in conjunction with the imaging methods for the numerical simulation. The hybrid global–local approach allowed fast and efficient prediction of scattering wave signals for Lamb wave interaction with crack from various incident directions. The simulation results showed the directionality effect of the scattering wave signals and suggested an optimum transmitter–sensor configuration. Two imaging methods were used: one involves the synthetic time reversal concept and the other involves Gaussian distribution function. Both imaging methods show very good agreement during simulations. Experiments were designed and conducted based on the simulated results. A network of eight piezoelectric wafer active sensors was used to capture the scattering waves from the crack. Both the pitch-catch and pulse-echo experimental modes were used. The directionality effect of incident Lamb waves on the imaging results was studied. The effect of summation, multiplication, and combined algorithms for each imaging method was studied. It was found that both methods can successfully predict the crack size and orientation. An attempt was made to use these imaging methods for detecting and sizing smaller sized damage (1- to 3-mm-diameter hole). It was found that these methods can successfully localize the hole, but size estimation was a bit challenging because of the smaller dimensions. The scattering waves for various hole sizes were studied.
This paper presents a new methodology for detecting and quantifying delamination in composite plates based on the high-frequency local vibration under the excitation of piezoelectric wafer active sensors. Finite-element-method-based numerical simulations and experimental measurements were performed to quantify the size, shape, and depth of the delaminations. Two composite plates with purpose-built delaminations of different sizes and depths were analyzed. In the experiments, ultrasonic C-scan was applied to visualize the simulated delaminations. In this methodology, piezoelectric wafer active sensors were used for the high-frequency excitation with a linear sine wave chirp from 1 to 500 kHz and a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer was used to measure the local vibration response of the composite plates. The local defect resonance frequencies of delaminations were determined from scanning laser Doppler vibrometer measurements and the corresponding operational vibration shapes were measured and utilized to quantify the delaminations. Harmonic analysis of local finite element model at the local defect resonance frequencies demonstrated that the strong vibrations only occurred in the delamination region. It is shown that the effect of delamination depth on the detectability of the delamination was more significant than the size of the delamination. The experimental and finite element modeling results demonstrate a good capability for the assessment of delamination with different sizes and depths in composite structures.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.