Numerical Investigation of Ultrasonic Guided Wave Dynamics in Piezoelectric Composite Plates for Establishing Structural Self-Sensing

Abstract

This article presents a numerical investigation of guided wave generation, propagation, interaction with damage, and reception in piezoelectric composite plates for the purpose of establishing structural self-awareness. This approach employs piezoelectric composite materials as both load bearing structure and sensing elements. Finite element modal analysis of a plate cell with Bloch-Floquet boundary condition (BFBC) is performed to understand the wave propagation characteristics in piezoelectric composite plates. A comparative study is carried out between a standard composite plate and a piezoelectric composite plate to highlight the influence of piezoelectricity on guided wave dispersion relations. Subsequently, a transient dynamic coupled-field finite element model is constructed to simulate the procedure of guided wave generation, propagation, interaction with damage, and reception in a piezoelectric composite plate. Active sensing array is designed to capture the structural response containing the damage information. Three engineering scenarios, including a pristine case, a one-damagelocation case and a two-damage-location case, are considered to demonstrate the ultrasonic sensing capability of the piezoelectric composite system. Finally, time-reversal method is utilized to locate and image the damage zones. This research shows that piezoelectric composite material possesses great potential to establish structural self-awareness, if it serves both as the load bearing and structural sensing components.