A Review of PZT Patches Applications in Submerged Systems

Well-balanced performance achieved in PZT piezoceramics via a multiscale regulation strategy

Emerging high-power piezoelectric applications demand the development of piezoelectric materials featuring both a high mechanical quality factor (Qm) and a large piezoelectric coefficient (d33). However, it is widely accepted that an increase in d33 is usually accompanied with a decrease in Qm, and vice versa. Herein, a multiscale regulation strategy is proposed to improve Qm and d33 simultaneously from the perspectives of phase structure, ferroelectric domains, and lattice defects. A well-balanced combination of electromechanical performances with Qm = 726, d33 = 502 pC N-1, kp = 0.69, tan δ = 0.0024, and TC = 267 °C was obtained. Through structural characterization, it was observed that the morphotropic phase boundary and enhanced dispersion behavior lead to a lowered energy barrier, which contributes to polarization rotation and enhances piezoelectric performance. At the same time, the excellent piezoelectric performances also benefit from the highly oriented domain structure and small domain size after high-temperature poling. Furthermore, the segregation of Ba2+ causes A-site defects in the crystal lattice, accompanied with an increase in oxygen vacancies, which maintains the hardening effect of the ceramics. This study proposes a multiscale regulation strategy, providing insights for the design of high-power piezoelectric ceramics with high d33 and Qm.

Energy harvesting from water impact using piezoelectric energy harvester

Energy, as an indispensable part of human life, has been a hot topic of research among scholars. The water kinetic energy generated by ocean currents, as a kind of clean energy, has high utilization rate, high power generation potential, and a broad prospect of powering microelectronic devices. As a result, the water kinetic piezoelectric energy harvester (WKPEH) has made significant progress in powering ocean sensors by harvesting ocean currents. This paper provides a comprehensive review of technologies that have been used in recent years to harvest energy from marine fluids using WKPEH. Detailed study of the energy harvesting mechanism of WKPEH. WKPEH can use the flutter-induced vibrations, vortex-induced vibrations, and wake oscillation principles to harvest water kinetic energy. The structural characteristics and output performance of each mechanism are also discussed and compared, and finally, a prospect on WKPEH is given.

Progress of low-frequency sound absorption research utilizing intelligent materials and acoustic metamaterials

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the impacts of environmental noises on living creatures as well as the accuracy and stability of precise instruments. Due to inherent properties induced by large wavelength, the attenuation and manipulation of low-frequency sound waves is quite difficult to realize with traditional acoustic absorbers, yet particularly critical to modern designs. The advent of acoustic metamaterials and intelligent materials provides possibilities of energy dissipation mechanisms other than viscous dissipation and heat conduction in conventional porous sound absorbers, and therefore inspires new strategies on the design of subwavelength-scale structures. This short review aims to trace the current advancement on the low-frequency sound absorption research utilizing intelligent materials and metamaterials, including Helmholtz resonators and acoustic metamaterials based on micro-perforated plates, porous media, and decorated membrane, along with the tunable absorbing structures regulated with the function of electroactive polymers or magnetically sensitive materials. The effective principles and prospects were concluded and presented for future investigations of subwavelength-scale acoustic structures.

Fibre Bragg Grating Based Acoustic Emission Measurement System for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based acoustic emission (AE) detection and monitoring is considered as a potential and emerging technology for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. In this paper, an overview of the FBG-based AE monitoring system is presented, and various technologies and methods used for FBG AE interrogation systems are reviewed and discussed. Various commercial FBG AE sensing systems, SHM applications of FBG AE monitoring, and market potential and recent trends are also discussed.

Electrode Effects on Flexible and Robust Polypropylene Ferroelectret Devices for Fully Integrated Energy Harvesters

This work presents a characterization study of the electrode interface in polypropylene ferroelectret nanogenerators. An emphasis is made on the comparison of carbon nanotube fiber electrodes with traditional metallic thin film electrodes. Multiple experiments were performed on samples with the same electrode dimensions for a range of applied pressures. Results showed higher open-circuit voltage peak values for the thin film metal electrodes, regardless of the applied pressure. Interestingly, the difference in short-circuit current values between metal and carbon nanotube-based fiber electrodes was not as significant. The carbon nanotube fiber electrode was further investigated by post-treating the fiber with acetone and comparing the results with untreated carbon nanotube film electrodes and thin film metal electrodes. In an effort to enable a monolithic integration of ferroelectret energy harvesters with flexible energy storage elements, this work also presents studies on generation and leakage of induced free charge in the electrodes of flexible ferroelectret energy harvesters. It was found the current leakage through parasitic elements is a faster process than dipole relaxation in the polypropylene film. Finally, an electrode reliability study shows no significant difference in the electrical output of the devices with metallic thin film electrodes after single folding but shows a significant deterioration after crumpling; meanwhile, these processes had no effect on the performance of similar devices with carbon nanotube fiber-based electrodes.

Multidimensional Vibration Suppression Method with Piezoelectric Control for Wind Tunnel Models

In wind tunnel tests, the low-frequency and large-amplitude vibration of the cantilever sting result in poor test data in pitch plane and yaw plane, more seriously, even threatens the safety of wind tunnel tests. To ensure the test data quality, a multidimensional vibration suppression method is proposed to withstand the vibration from any direction, which is based on a system with stackable piezoelectric actuators and velocity feedback employing accelerometers. Firstly, the motion equation of the cantilever sting system is obtained by Hamilton’s principle with the assumed mode method. Then, the multidimensional active control mechanism is qualitatively analyzed and a negative velocity feedback control algorithm combined with a root mean square (RMS) evaluation method is introduced to realize active mass and active damping effect, meanwhile, a weight modification method is performed to determine the sequence number of the stacked piezoelectric actuators and the weight of control voltages in real time. Finally, a multidimensional vibration suppression system was established and verification experiments were carried out in lab and a transonic wind tunnel. The results of lab experiments indicate that the damping ratio of the system is improved more than 4.3 times and the spectrum analyses show reductions of more than 23 dB. In addition, wind tunnel test results have shown that for the working conditions (α = −4~10° with γ = 0° or α = −4~10° with γ = 45°) respectively at 0.6 Ma and 0.7 Ma, the remainder vibration is less than 1.53 g, which proves that the multidimensional vibration suppression method has the ability to resist vibration from any direction to ensure the smooth process of wind tunnel tests.

Lamb-Wave-Based Multistage Damage Detection Method Using an Active PZT Sensor Network for Large Structures

A multistage damage detection method is introduced in this work that uses piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers to excite/sense the Lamb wave signals. A continuous wavelet transformation (CWT), based on the Gabor wavelet, is applied to accurately process the complicated wave signals caused by the damage. For a network of transducers, the damage can be detected in one detection cell based on the signals scattered by the damage, and then it can be quantitatively estimated by three detection stages using the outer tangent circle and least-squares methods. First, a single-stage damage detection method is carried out by exciting a transducer at the center of the detection cell to locate the damaged subcell. Then, the corner transducers are excited in the second and third stages of detection to improve the damage detection, especially the size estimation. The method does not require any baseline signal, and it only utilizes the same arrangement of transducers and the same data processing technique in all stages. The results from previous detection stages contribute to the improvement of damage detection in the subsequent stages. Both numerical simulation and experimental evaluation were used to verify that the method can accurately quantify the damage location and size. It was also found that the size of the detection cell plays a vital role in the accuracy of the results in this Lamb-wave-based multistage damage detection method.

Time-Delayed Feedback Control of Piezoelectric Elastic Beams under Superharmonic and Subharmonic Excitations

The time-delayed displacement feedback control is provided to restrain the superharmonic and subharmonic response of the elastic support beams. The nonlinear equations of the controlled elastic beam are obtained with the help of the Euler–Bernoulli beam principle and time-delayed feedback control strategy. Based on Galerkin method, the discrete nonlinear time-delayed equations are derived. Using the multiscale method, the first-order approximate solutions and stability conditions of three superharmonic and 1/3 subharmonic resonance response on controlled beams are derived. The influence of time-delayed parameters and control gain are obtained. The results show that the time-delayed displacement feedback control can effectively suppress the superharmonic and subharmonic resonance response. Selecting reasonably the time-delayed quantity and control gain can avoid the resonance region and unstable multi-solutions and improve the efficiency of the vibration control. Furthermore, with the purpose of suppressing the amplitude peak and governing the resonance stability, appropriate feedback gain and time delay are derived.

Experimental and Numerical Design and Evaluation of a Vibration Bioreactor using Piezoelectric Patches

In this present study, we propose a method for exposing biological cells to mechanical vibration. The motive for our research was to design a bioreactor prototype in which in-depth in vitro studies about the influence of vibration on cells and their metabolism can be performed. The therapy of cancer or antibacterial measures are applications of interest. In addition, questions about the reaction of neurons to vibration are still largely unanswered. In our methodology, we used a piezoelectric patch (PZTp) for inducing mechanical vibration to the structure. To control the vibration amplitude, the structure could be excited at different frequency ranges, including resonance and non-resonance conditions. Experimental results show the vibration amplitudes expected for every frequency range tested, as well as the vibration pattern of those excitations. These are essential parameters to quantify the effect of vibration on cell behavior. Furthermore, a numerical model was validated with the experimental results presenting accurate results for the prediction of those parameters. With the calibrated numerical model, we will study in greater depth the effects of different vibration patterns for the abovementioned cell types.