Dynamic/static displacement sensor based on magnetoelectric composites

Abstract

This study presents a dynamic/static displacement sensor based on both end fixed Terfenol-D/PZT (lead zirconate titanate) magnetoelectric composites. Owing to the fixed boundary condition, the magnetostriction of Terfenol-D under the magnetic field is limited and the stress acts on PZT through mechanical coupling, and finally, an induced voltage is generated due to the piezoelectric effect in PZT. The magnetic field applied on the magnetoelectric composites varies with the displacement of the permanent magnet which represents the displacement to be measured. In that case, the determination of displacement can be transformed into determining the variation of the magnetic field. The experimental results manifest that the frequency of magnetoelectric voltage is the same as the frequency of displacement. The dynamic displacement sensitivity of this sensor increases with the increase in the input frequency in the low frequency range and the decrease in the length of the air gap. The sensitivity is 6.549 mV/μm with a 0.75 mm air gap for dynamic displacement at 10 Hz and 0.84 μV/μm with a 2.5 mm air gap and an external magnetic field at 1 kHz for static displacement. It can be concluded that the displacement measuring mechanism based on the magnetoelectric effect is a promising robust and accurate method.