Abstract

Piezoceramic phased arrays are effective for guided wave beamsteering in structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. Researchers have investigated phased arrays of monolithic piezoceramic (PZT) actuators for beamsteering using Lamb waves by assuming omnidirectional point sources for each actuator. However, this assumption can lead to erroneous results for a phased array of actuators with anisotropic actuation. The objective of this research is to investigate the beamforming and beamsteering characteristics of a phased array of MacroFiber Composites (MFC) actuators and to compare the performance with PZT actuators. General analytical models of the PZT and MFC actuators for antisymmetric modes of Lamb waves are developed. The genetic algorithm (GA) is utilized to attain exact beamforming directivity, decrease side lobe magnitudes, and reduce the main lobe width. The results of the phased array beamforming for the PZT and MFC are compared for various steering directions and number of actuators. The advantages of the MFC phased array are highlighted and discussed. This investigation provides valuable design insight and guidelines for the MFC phased arrays.

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