Use of piezoceramic transducers for smart structural testing

Abstract

This paper presents the use of piezoceramic transducers, PZT actuators and PVDF sensors, for experimental modal testing of a simply supported plate. A series of rectangular shape of PVDF films are evenly distributed over the plate and act as the sensing devices instead of traditional acceleration sensors. The rectangular PZT patches that are adhered to the opposite surfaces of the plate and activated 180° out- of-phase for pure bending excitation are adopted as the actuator. The theoretical formulation of frequency response functions (FRFs) of the piezoceramic transducers is developed. The mode shape functions of the PZT actuator and the PVDF sensor are identified, respectively. Experiments are performed to obtain a column of FRF matrix. The structural modal parameters, including natural frequencies, modal damping ratios and mode shapes, can then be extracted by a modal parameter extraction method. Results show the modal parameters can be properly obtained and physically interpreted in comply with theoretical results. This paper presents the concepts of smart structural testing (SST) with the use of piezoceramic transducers and leads to the applications of smart structures to health monitoring of structural systems.