• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.361-369
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• 2017

Electromechanical impedance method as an efficient tool in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) utilizes the electromechanical impedance of piezoelectric materials which is directly related to the mechanical impedance of the host structure and will be affected by damages. In this paper, electromechanical impedance of piezoelectric patches attached to simply support rectangular plate is determined theoretically and experimentally in order to detect damage. A pairs of piezoelectric wafer active sensor (PWAS) patches are used on top and bottom of an aluminum plate to generate pure bending. The analytical model and experiments are carried out both for undamaged and damaged plates. To validate theoretical models, the electromechanical impedances of PWAS for undamaged and damaged plate using theoretical models are compared with those obtained experimentally. Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that by crack generation and intensifying this crack, natural frequency of structure decreases. Finally, in order to evaluate damage severity, damage metrics such as Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD), Mean Absolute Percentage Deviation (MAPD), and Correlation Coefficient Deviation (CCD) are used based on experimental results. The results show that generation of crack and crack depth increasing can be detectable by CCD.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.761-777
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• 2021

This study presents a numerical investigation on the sensitivity of electromechanical (EM) impedance responses to inner damaged concrete of a prestressed anchorage zone. Firstly, the Ottosen yield criterion is selected to simulate the plasticity behavior of the concrete anchorage zone under the compressive loading. Secondly, several overloading cases are selected to analyze inner damage formations in the concrete of the anchorage zone. Using a finite element (FE) model of the anchorage zone, the relationship between applied forces and stresses is analyzed to illustrate inner plasticity regions in concrete induced by the overloading. Thirdly, EM impedance responses of surface-mounted PZT (lead-zirconate-titanate) sensors are numerically acquired before and after concrete damage occurrence in the anchorage zone. The variation of impedance responses is estimated using the RMSD (root-mean-square-deviation) damage metric to quantify the sensitivity of the signals to inner damaged concrete. Lastly, a novel PZT skin, which can measure impedance signatures in predetermined frequency ranges, is designed for the anchorage zone to sensitively monitor the EM impedance signals of the inner damaged concrete. The feasibility of the proposed method is numerically evaluated for a series of damage cases of the anchorage zone. The results reveal that the proposed impedance-based method is promising for monitoring inner damaged concrete in anchorage zones.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.260-270
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• 2011

The electromechanical impedance(E/M)-based method detects local structural damages based on variations of electrical impedance signatures which are obtained from piezoelectric sensors bonded to the structure and excited in high frequency band. In this method, temperature changes may result in significant impedance variations and lead to erroneous diagnostic results of the structure. To tackle this problem, a new technique providing a 2-dimensional damage feature related to the temperature information is proposed to distinguish the structural damage from the undesirable temperature variation. For experimental tests to validate the proposed method, damages are introduced by bolt loosening to a bolt-jointed steel beam, and impedance signals are measured under varying temperature conditions through a piezoelectric sensor attached on the beam. A freely suspended piezoelectric sensor is additionally utilized to obtain temperature information indirectly from resistance signatures. From a relationship between the damage index (from a constrained sensor) and the temperature (from a freely suspended sensor or a temperature sensor), damages can be detected more clearly under varying temperature compared to other conventional approaches.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.32-40
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• 1992

This study shows how the finite element method for the structural problems could be applied in the electromechanical impedance analysis of an in-air piezoelectric cylinder transducer and then compares the numerical results by the FEM with the measured results using the impedance analyzer. The results also show that the comparison between both results could be applied to examine the mechanical properties of the added unknown material to transducer such as an acoustic window.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Information Technology Applications Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.215-218
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• 2005

We have investigated on the development of 2-2 piezocomposites that have better piezoelectric activity and lower acoustic impedance than those of conventional piezoceramics. In this study, we have investigated the piezoelectric and acoustic properties of 2-2 piezocomposites sensor which were fabricated using dice-and-fill technique for the different volume fraction of PZT. The resonance characteristics measured by an impedance analyzer were similar to the analysis of finite element method. The resonance characteristics and the electromechanical coupling factor were the best when the volume fraction PZT was 0.6. It also showed the highest result from the standpoint of sensitivity, bandwidth and ring-down property and so on at the same condition. The specific characteristics shows that the 2-2 piezocomposites turned out to be superior to the ultrasonic sensor composed by single phase PZT.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 2018

A new type of cascade sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer is presented and studied. The cascade transducer is composed of two traditional longitudinally sandwiched piezoelectric transducers, which are connected together in series mechanically and in parallel electrically. Based on the analytical method, the electromechanical equivalent circuit of the cascade transducer is derived and the resonance/anti-resonance frequency equations are obtained. The impedance characteristics and the vibrational modes of the transducer are analyzed. By means of numerical method, the dependency of the resonance/anti-resonance frequency and the effective electromechanical coupling coefficient on the geometrical dimensions of the cascade transducer are studied and some interesting conclusions are obtained. Two prototypes of the cascade transducers are designed and made; the resonance/anti-resonance frequency is measured. It is shown that the analytical resonance/anti-resonance frequencies are in good agreement with the experimental results. It is expected that this kind of cascade transducer can be used in large power and high intensity ultrasonic applications, such as ultrasonic liquid processing, ultrasonic metal machining and ultrasonic welding and soldering.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.354-360
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• 2002

The piezoelectric composites had many advantages in comparison with conventional piezoelectric ceramics and piezopolymers for ultrasonic transducers used in NDT and in medical ultrasionic imaging. The electromechanical coupling coefficient should be high and the acoustic impedance should be low in these applications. However, the cross-coupling with spurious oscillations caused by laterally running plate waves exhibited complex motions in the surface of piezoelectric composites with coarse lateral spatial scale. The thickness mode electromechanical coupling coefficient of 1-3type of piezoelectric compoistes were 0.36 to 0.64, and the acoustic impedance of them were 9.8 to 22.7 MRayl. The lateral resonance frequency of 1-3 type piezoelectric composites shifted to high frequency region with decreasing lateral spatial scale.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.1132-1141
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• 2019

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures have important advantages over conventional concrete structures, however, bond-slip between the steel plate and concrete may lead to a loss of composite action, resulting in a reduction of stiffness and fatigue life of SCS sandwich structures. Due to the inaccessibility and invisibility of the interface, the interfacial performance monitoring and debonding detection using traditional measurement methods, such as relative displacement between the steel plate and core concrete, have proved challenging. In this work, two methods using piezoelectric transducers are proposed to detect the bond-slip between steel plate and core concrete during the test of the beam. The first one is acoustic emission (AE) method, which can detect the dynamic process of bond-slip. AE signals can be detected when initial micro cracks form and indicate the damage severity, types and locations. The second is electromechanical impedance (EMI) method, which can be used to evaluate the damage due to bond-slip through comparing with the reference data in static state, even if the bond-slip is invisible and suspends. In this work, the experiment is implemented to demonstrate the bond-slip monitoring using above methods. Experimental results and further analysis show the validity and unique advantage of the proposed methods.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2005

We studied the characteristics of impedance and electromechanical coupling coefficient in ZnO and AIN thin films by using resonance frequency spectrum method. The response peak of impedance decreased with the decrease of thickness of piezoelectrics, the number of mode of response peak decreased with the decrease of substrate thickness. An error of Kt² estimated from input Kt² increased as the thickness of piezoelectrics decreased and the thickness of substrate increased. Also, the error was increased in case of a large acoustic impedance of substrate. It was found that the composite resonator operating in optimized condition could be designed through the resonance frequency spectrum analysis of composited resonator consisted of piezoelectric thin film and substrate.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.80-86
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• 2007

We have investigated on the development of 2-2 type piezocomposites that have better piezoelectric activity and lower acoustic impedance than those of conventional piezoceramics. In this study, we have investigated the piezoelectric and acoustic properties of 2-2 type piezocomposites sensor which was fabricated using dice-and-fill technique for the different volume fraction of PZT. The specific acoustic impedance of 2-2 type piezocomposites decreased linearly when PZT volume fraction was decreased. The resonance characteristics measured by an impedance analyzer(HP4194A) were similar to the analysis of finite element method (FEM). The resonance characteristics and the electromechanical coupling factor were the best when the volume fraction PZT was 0.6. It also showed the highest result from the standpoint of sensitivity, bandwidth and ring-down property and so on at the same condition. The specific characteristics show that the 2-2 type piezocomposites turned out to be superior to the ultrasonic sensor composed by single phase PZT.