Abstract
Ultrasonic transducers performance can be seriously deteriorated by loss of adhesion between some constitutive elements such as the active element, the backing, or the matching layer. In the present work, the influence of bonding delaminations on the performance of a single-element ultrasonic transducer, which is composed of a piezoelectric disk, a backing, and a matching layer, is studied numerically and experimentally. Based on the positions between layers, two cases, i.e., delaminations between ceramic and backing or between ceramic and matching layer, are considered. Each case involves three different types of delaminations, which are marked as delamination type (DT)-I, II, and III. DT-I, a circular shape delamination, starts from the center and expands towards the peripheric zone; DT-II, an annular shape delamination, starts from the peripheric zone and expands towards the center; DT-III is a sector shape delamination with a given angle. The numerical simulations are performed by the finite element method and the influence of delaminations on the electromechanical admittance (EMA) of the transducer is investigated. 3D printed backings and matching layers are mounted on a PZT sample to assemble delaminated single-element transducers. An impedance analyzer is used for experimental measurements. Comparison between numerical and experimental results shows a reasonable agreement making changes in EMA an interesting indicator to inform about the occurrence and severity of delaminations in a single-element ultrasonic transducer.
Highlights
Ultrasonic transducers have been widely used for applications, including medical diagnosis and therapy, non-destructive evaluation (NDE), and underwater sonar
It is necessary to test the characteristics of the transducer periodically during its lifetime and detect any defect that could appear before they significantly affect the performance of the system
Numerical results results show that changes in the versus frequency curves are observed as delamishow that changes in the electromechanical admittance (EMA) versus frequency curves are observed as delaminated area nated area increases
Summary
Ultrasonic transducers have been widely used for applications, including medical diagnosis and therapy, non-destructive evaluation (NDE), and underwater sonar. Due to the misuse of operators or material degradation, defects may occur, such as breakages in cables, cracks, damaged or weakened crystals, and delamination between layers [1,2,3,4]. This can lead to inaccurate interpretations and false positives or false negatives in applications such as medical diagnostics. It is necessary to test the characteristics of the transducer periodically during its lifetime and detect any defect that could appear before they significantly affect the performance of the system
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