Piezoelectric Electro-Mechanical Impedance (EMI) Based Structural Crack Monitoring

Abstract

To detect small cracks in plate like structures, the high frequency characteristics of local dynamics were studied with the piezoelectric electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) method, and damages were monitored by the changes of the EMI. The finite element simulation model of EMI was established, and numerical analysis was conducted. The simulation results indicated that the peak frequency of the piezoelectric admittance signal is a certain order resonance frequency of the structure, and the piezoelectric impedance method could effectively detect the dynamic characteristics of the structure. The piezoelectric admittance simulation and experimental study of aluminum beams with different crack sizes were performed. Simulation and experimental results revealed that the peak admittance frequency decreases with the increase of crack size, and the higher resonance frequency is more sensitive to the small-scale damage. The proposed method has good repeatability and strong signal-to-noise ratio to monitor the occurrence and development of small-scale crack damage, and it has an important application prospect.