Piezoelectric paint sensor for real-time structural health monitoring

Sensors, which collect data for further information processing, are core component of any viable structural health monitoring system. Continuous on-line structural health monitoring can be achieved through the use of advanced sensors developed for real-time structural health monitoring applications. To overcome the problems associated with traditional piezoelectric ceramics, a polymer-based piezoelectric paint material has been developed and recently used for sensors. The piezoelectric paint is composed of tiny piezoelectric particles mixed within polymer matrix and therefore belongs to "0-3" piezoelectric composite. Because of the electro-mechanical coupling properties of piezoelectric paint, the dynamic responses of host structures can be monitored by measuring the output voltage signals from the piezoelectric paint sensor. Piezoelectric paint sensors hold a great potential for dynamic strain sensing applications due to the ease with which their mechanical properties can be adjusted, low fabrication cost, ease of implementation, and conformability to curved surface Additionally, a novel surface crack detection technique has been conceived and validated experimentally, in which cracks of the host structure is detected by observing the measured signals from an piezoelectric paint sensor with multi-electrode configuration. This paper presents this piezoelectric paint-based crack monitoring method as well as validation test data. The piezoelectric paint sensor is ideal for surface crack detection in locations with complex geometry, such as welded joints, which conventional sensors are ill equipped to do.