Mn-doped 0.67BiFeO3-0.33BaTiO3 ceramic sensor for high-temperature structural health monitoring

Abstract

Real-time monitoring of structural health status is very important for supersonic aircraft, since the long-term operation in harsh service environments, such as high temperatures, can cause potential damage. Structural health monitoring (SHM) based on lamb wave has been approved to be a critical technique for the reliable operation of supersonic aircraft, but is limited by the operating temperature of conventional piezoelectric sensors, which makes it difficult to meet the high-temperature monitoring requirements. The BiFeO3–BaTiO3 ceramics exhibit excellent piezoelectric properties and high Curie temperature (Tc), making them promising for high-temperature SHM of supersonic aircraft. Here, we fabricated a piezoelectric sensor using 0.67BiFeO3-0.33BaTiO3-0.25%molMnO2 (BF33BTMN-025) ceramic, which exhibits a piezoelectric charge constant (d33) of 135 pC/N at room temperature and a Tc of 448 °C. The BF33BTMN-025 ceramic sensor operates effectively at temperatures up to 200 °C and maintains stable damage monitoring sensitivity as well. Compared with Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT), BaTiO3 (BTO) and other piezoelectric sensors commonly used in SHM field, the BF33BTMN-025 ceramic sensor has a higher operating temperature and a comparable sensitivity. Our work demonstrates that the BF33BTMN-025 ceramic sensor can be employed as piezoelectric sensor for high-temperature SHM, which has a wide application potential in the field of real-time monitoring of supersonic aircraft.