Lee Sze Shan
Metric No: BK10110137
Topic: FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF THE PIEZOELECTRIC WAFER ACTIVE SENSORS (PWAS)
Abstract: Lamb wave propagation in plate structures is used as an important tool for non-destructive structural health monitoring. It is a first step towards establishing an entire structural health monitoring system and to provide experimental verification of the proposed models. This project is mainly focus on using finite element (FE) modelling to simulate the transient waves in an integrated piezoelectric wafer transducer plate, particularly Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) bonded on the aluminium plate. PZT ceramic patch are paste on the aluminium plate acting as both actuator and sensor to generate and collect Lamb waves. The converse piezoelectric effect of the actuator is treated as an equivalent bending moment applied to the host plate. In between the wave mode is determined from the theoretical dispersion curve. This step is to ensure the speed is compared correctly with the experimental test. Furthermore, experimental work is compared to verify the accuracy of the analytical model. Experimental results show that single-mode Lamb waves in the plate can be successfully generated and collected through the integrated PZT patches. As a result from comparison, the analytical result is reliable to show the wave propagation.