This work validates the use of integrated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film sensors for dynamic testing, even after being subjected to UV-thermo-hygro-mechanical accelerated ageing conditions. The verification of PVDF sensors’ survivability in these environmental conditions, typically confronted by civil and military aircraft, is the main concern of the study. The evaluation of survivability is made by a comparison of dynamic testing results provided by the PVDF patch sensors subjected to an accelerated ageing protocol, and those provided by neutral non-aged sensors (accelerometers). The available measurements are the time-domain response signals issued from a modal analysis procedure, and the corresponding frequency response functions (FRF). These are in turn used to identify the constitutive properties of the samples by extraction of the modal parameters, in particular the natural frequencies. The composite specimens in this study undergo different accelerated ageing processes. After several weeks of experimentation, the samples exhibit a loss of stiffness, represented by a decrease in the elastic moduli down to 10%. Despite the ageing, the integrated PVDF sensors, subjected to the same ageing conditions, are still capable of providing reliable data to carry out a close followup of these changes. This survivability is a determinant asset in order to use integrated PVDF sensors to perform structural health monitoring (SHM) in the future of full-scale composite aeronautical structures.
Aiming to reduce costs, polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) film patches are an emerging alternative to more classic piezoelectric technologies, like ceramic patches, as transducers to measure local deformation in many structural applications. This choice is supported by advantages such as the low weight and mechanical flexibility of PVDF, making this polymer suitable for embedding inside full scale polymer based composite structures. Piezoelectric transducer patches can be used as actuators to dynamically excite full-scale composite structures, and as sensors to measure the strain. The main objective of this paper is to verify that the PVDF transducers can provide exploitable signals in the context of structural health monitoring. In order to do so, two aspects of the design of transducer network are investigated: the optimization of the sensor network, for which the effective independence method is proposed, and the use of operational modal analysis (OMA), since it is a simple method to extract the natural frequencies of a structure from a time series. The results of the analysis are compared to a reference set issued from experimental modal analysis (EMA), a simple, well-known, classic method, which is carried out using accelerometers and an impact hammer. By statistical means, it is shown that there is no significant difference between the two methods, and an optimized PVDF transducer network combined with OMA can perform the dynamic analysis of a structure as well as a classic EMA setup would do. This leads the way to the use of low-cost PVDF embedded transducer networks for robust composite material characterization.
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