Subsurface damage identification and localization in PZT ceramics using point contact excitation and detection: An...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Non-destructive Testing
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Piezoelectric sensors are vital for structural health monitoring (SHM).
• Sensor performance degrades due to defects and environmental factors, necessitating pre-implementation diagnostics.
• Current diagnostic methods and damage detection algorithms lack robustness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robust subsurface anomaly detection framework for piezoelectric sensors.
• To address limitations in current experimental methods and damage detection algorithms for SHM.
• To enable reliable sensor diagnosis before implementation.

Main Methods:

• A novel Coulomb coupling-based experimental approach to visualize ultrasonic wave interactions with microscale Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) defects.
• Block Matching 3D (BM3D) filtering for advanced noise reduction in ultrasonic signals.
• Multiresolution dynamic mode decomposition (mrDMD) for identifying subsurface defects in PZT materials.

Main Results:

• The framework effectively visualizes ultrasonic wave interactions with PZT subsurface defects.
• BM3D filtering significantly reduces noise, enhancing signal clarity.
• mrDMD accurately identifies and localizes subsurface defects in PZT.
• The proposed framework demonstrates robustness against significant measurement noise.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework provides reliable detection and localization of damage in piezoelectric sensors.
• The approach is efficient and does not require a reference damage-free counterpart.
• This innovation enhances the reliability of piezoelectric sensors in SHM applications.