KEYWORDS: Structural health monitoring, Ferroelectric materials, Sensors, Renewable energy, Metamaterials, Finite element methods, Epoxies, Energy harvesting, Chemical elements
Interest in blue energy harvesting systems is rapidly growing and becoming widespread given its promise as a renewable and clean energy source. Blue energy harvesting from raindrop impact would allow low-power systems to operate in remote areas without the need for battery replacement and related maintenance. Insufficient power output is the most critical limitation that makes the conventional types of rain energy harvester (REH) typically unusable or/and infeasible. To overcome this limitation, a bio-inspired metasurface skin is proposed in this paper to serve as the membrane for a piezoelectric type of REHs. The proposed metasurface membrane is comprised of a system of biaxial-cuts inspired by snake scale. The power enhancement of the bio-inspired harvester with a metamembrane was studied and compared to its equivalent conventional harvester with a plain membrane when the substrate was under raindrop pressure. The Finite Element Model (FEM) results showed that the metamembrane could transfer more stress deformation to the piezo-element layer, thus enhancing power output. This is attributable to the metasurface membrane polarizing the PVDF better than a conventional plain membrane because of its higher ability to stretch the PVDF. The proposed bio-inspired harvester could be used for different public facilities such as tents, umbrellas, awnings, temporary roofs, coverings, and tarps to provide power for sensing, lighting, signage, digital displays, etc., especially in heavy-rain regions.
This paper introduces a creative metamaterial-based substrate (MetaSub) for piezoelectric energy harvesters. The MetaSub is a platform with a high flexibility in both longitudinal and transverse directions. The novel design of the MetaSub remarkably improves the productivity of strain-induced devices in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications, internet of thing (IoT) networks, micro electromechanical (MEMS) systems, vibration energy harvesters, sensor and actuators, and hundreds applications that its performance is related to their deformation capability. In this paper, a piezoelectric type of energy harvester is selected to be studied numerically as the first application of the MetaSub. The finite element results predict the average power output gained by the MetaSub piezoelectric energy harvester to be up to 19.2 times more than power generated by an equivalent conventional piezoelectric energy harvester.
Guided waves are acoustic waves that are guided by boundaries. Depending on the structural geometry, guided waves can either propagate between boundaries, known as plate waves, or propagate on the surface of the objects. Many different types of surface waves exist based on the material property of the boundary. For example Rayleigh wave in solid - air, Scholte wave in solid - liquid, Stoneley in solid – solid interface and many other different forms like Love wave on inhomogeneous surfaces, creeping waves, etc. This research work is demonstrating the application of surface and interface waves for detection of interfacial damages in hybrid bonded structures.
This paper proposes a full-field pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imaging (FF-PE-UPI) system for non-destructive
evaluation of structural defects. The system works by detection of bulk waves that travel through the thickness of a
specimen. This is achieved by joining the laser beams for the ultrasonic wave generation and sensing. This enables
accurate and clear damage assessment and defect localization in the thickness with minimum signal processing since
bulk waves are less susceptible to dispersion during short propagation through the thickness. The system consists of a Qswitched
laser for generating the aforementioned waves, a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) for sensing, optical elements
to combine the generating and sensing laser beams, a dual-axis automated translation stage for raster scanning of the
specimen and a digitizer to record the signals. A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed to control all the individual
blocks of the system. Additionally, the software also manages signal acquisition, processing, and display. The GUI is
created in C++ using the QT framework. In view of the requirements posed by the Korean Air Force(KAF), the system is
designed to be compact and portable to allow for in situ inspection of a selected area of a larger structure such as radome
or rudder of an aircraft. The GUI is designed with a minimalistic approach to promote usability and adaptability while
masking the intricacies of actual system operation. Through the use of multithreading the software is able to show the
results while a specimen is still being scanned. This is achieved by real-time and concurrent acquisition, processing, and
display of ultrasonic signal of the latest scan point in the scan area.
In this study, a new damage detection technique is developed so that delamination in a multilayer composite plate can be
detected by comparing multi-path pitch-catch Lamb wave signals in a piezoelectric transducer network rather than by
comparing each signal with its corresponding baseline signal obtained from the pristine condition. The development of
the proposed technique is based on the premise that the fundamental anti-symmetric mode (A0) slows down when it
passes through a delamination area while the speed of the fundamental symmetric mode (S0) is invariant. First, the delay
of the A0 mode in each path is used as a delamination sensitive feature and extracted using a proposed mode extraction
technique. This mode extraction technique uses dual piezoelectric transducers composed of a concentric ring and circular
piezoelectric transducers, and it is capable of isolating the A0 mode in any desired frequency without frequency or
transducer size tuning. Once the time delays of the A0 mode are computed for all pitch-catch paths in the transducer
network, an instantaneous outlier analysis is performed on these features to identify wave propagation path(s) affected by
the delaminated region(s). Because the time delays of the A0 mode are instantaneously computed from existing multiple
paths, it has been demonstrated that robust delamination detection can be achieved even under varying temperature
conditions.
A built-in cost-effective diagnostic system is being developed to monitor fatigue crack growth in aircraft structures. The proposed system consists of a SMART Layer by Acellent Technologies with an embedded network of distributed piezoelectric sensors/actuators, a diagnostic unit, and software. Multi-riveted aluminum lap joints (936 x 462 mm) were tested for a constant amplitude fatigue test under tensile loading to monitor crack growth at rivet holes. A SMART Layer was designed as a strip and surface-mounted to the critical area of lap joints where crack initiation and growth were suspected. The SMART Layer installed between the two rivet rows was used as an actuator strip and the other layer located below the rivets was used as a sensor strip. Using the software, pre-selected diagnostic signals from a designated piezoelectric actuator to its neighboring sensors were generated by the diagnostic unit. A corresponding sensor signals were recorded and compared to a previously recorded baseline reference. The signal processing technique and interpretation algorithm were developed and implemented for extracting features related to crack growth condition at the time of measurement. The results of estimates were compared with non-destructive testing (NDT) data taken from the experiments, which were conducted during the course of the investigation. The probability of damage detection, compared to conventional NDT techniques, was evaluated.
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