Experimental measurement of displacement and vibration of piezoelectric smart structures

Chandrashekhar Bendigeri (corresponding author),a Dattatraya Hegde,b K. Badari Narayanac and K. Ramachandrad a Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore University, Bangalore 560 001, India E-mail: csb_bangalore@yahoo.com b Department of Mechanical Engineering, UVCE, Bangalore University, Bangalore-560 001, India c Goodrich Aerospace Service Pvt Ltd, White Field Road, Bangalore 560 048, India d Director (Ex), Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore 560 093, India
Abstract Recent advances in the eld of distributed sensing and actuation have led to the development of new smart structures. A smart (or intelligent) structure is able to sense and respond, and control its own characteristics and state. Piezoelectric smart materials have gained popularity as both sensors and actuators. In the present work a new experimental set-up is described that was designed to carry out static and dynamic experimentation on piezoelectric smart structures. Four types of experiment were carried out; results were also determined using analytical methods. The comparison of the analytical and experimental results showed good agreement. Keywords piezoelectric; smart material; sensing; smart beam

Introduction This paper presents a few experiments carried out to evaluate the static and dynamic responses of smart structures embedded with piezoelectric materials. These experiments were carried out to assess the necessary instrumentation and testing procedures. The experiments were of four types: (1) a smart beam made of aircraft-quality aluminum alloy with a built-in piezoelectric transducer (PZT), subjected to a known voltage to estimate the deection in the beam; (2) a smart beam made of steel with a built-in PZT, subjected to voltage; (3) a smart composite beam made of carbon/epoxy with a built-in PZT, subjected to voltage to estimate the deection in the beam; (4) a smart beam made of aluminum with a built-in PZT, subjected to free vibration. In this paper details of the instrumentation used, specimen preparation, conduct of the experiments and analysis of the results are presented. Instrumentation Table 1 lists the instrumentation used. Fig. 1 shows the different instrumentation and a smart beam used in the program.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

186

C. Bendigeri et al.

TABLE 1 Instrumentation
Instrument 1. Function generator Characteristics/use Waveform: sine waveform Frequency range: 0.5 Hz to 3 MHz with digital display Output voltage: 30 V peak to peak Used for generation of signal Sensor: piezoelectric crystal Output: sine wave Frequency range: 10 Hz to 1 kHz Maximum output voltage: 10 Volts. Used for sensing the voltage Maximum output voltage: 10 V peak to peak with unity gain Frequency range: 0.11000 Hz Order of lter: fourth order Used for ltering the waves Frequency range 16000 Hz Operating temperature of 125 C Used for measuring of displacement/velocity/acceleration Frequency range 10400 Hz Input: sine wave AC input voltage: +/ 10 V maximum DC voltage: 0100 V Output voltage: 0200 V Used for generation of low-current and high-voltage source for driving the piezoelectric actuator Variable DC supply: 0200 V and 1 A Used to obtain variable DC supply 1 mm Maximum output: 5 V Number of digits: 5 Excitation voltage: 1 V Frequency 4 kHz Used for measuring the displacement

2. Piezo sensing system

3. Active band pass lter

4. Vibration meter along with accelerometer

5. Piezo actuation system

6. Dimmerstat with power transformer 7. Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1

(a) The instruments. (b) A smart beam and instrumentation.

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

Piezoelectric smart structures

187

Certain qualities of piezoelectric materials needed to be taken account of in the experiments [15]: Aging tends to degrade piezoelectric performance with time, which is normally a decay of the poling process. High stress elds can depole piezoelectric material. Breaching the Curie point depoles piezoelectric material. Self-heating can occur at high stress levels. Low fracture toughness and tensile strength results in brittle cracking. Surface cracking can lead to electric arcing. To take into account the hysteresis of piezoceramics (a property of producing residual strains after the removal of the applied voltage), voltages were repeated in the reverse direction of the electric potential. Also, the limitations of the equipment, such as the gain of the voltmeter being less at low frequencies, had to be considered. The mass of the accelerometer during measurement could produce some small variation in the results. The surrounding vibration sometimes could result in a small variation in the measured values, as could the cables. These factors should be borne in mind [68]. Aluminum smart beam A thick beam made of aircraft-quality aluminum alloy was used. A piezoelectric patch was mounted on this beam and subjected to an electric eld. The block diagram of the experiment is shown in Fig. 2. The geometry of the smart beam is shown in Fig. 3. This case study involved the combination of isotropic and piezoelectric materials. Specimen preparation The aluminum beam was machined as per the dimensions shown in Fig. 3. Piezoelectric material made of PZT (manufactured by Sparkler Ceramics, Pune) was xed on the beam [912]. The procedure for xing the piezo was as follows:

Fig. 2 Block diagram of the experimental set-up for the aluminum smart beam.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

188

C. Bendigeri et al.

Fig. 3 Geometry of the aluminum smart beam.

An emery sheet of zero number was used to rub the beam where the piezoelectric material was to be xed. A pure cotton cloth and carbon tetrachloride were used to clean the surface. The exact location for the PZT was marked. Araldite (hardener and adhesive) was mixed thoroughly until white and uniform. The araldite was smeared on the PZT and on the place on the beam marked for the PZT. The PZT was put on the beam and pressed down. Then for 24 hours it was kept at room temperature for curing. The PZT was supplied with leads known as pig tails from the manufacturer, consisting of positive and negative terminals. Another terminal, a small copper strip, was used to connect the pig tails to the instrumentation. Experimental procedure The procedure for conducting the experiment was as follows: The aluminum beam with the piezoelectric material was clamped tightly at one side as a cantilever. The variable DC supply (dimmerstat with power transformer, variable DC supply 0200 V and 1 A) was applied to the PZT on the beam. The voltage applied to the PZT on the beam caused it to deect. The deection obtained at the tip of the beam was measured using a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) with specication of 1 mm, maximum output 5 V, number of digits 5, excitation voltage 1 V and frequency 4 kHz.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

Piezoelectric smart structures

189

Analytical method The deection was also determined using an analytical method, from the following equation: m tb = l 2 I b Eb where is the deection m is the moment generated by the applied voltage, given by the equation m= 6 d 31 V EI b EI c tc t b 3EI b + 4 EI c

Ib is the moment inertia of the beam Ic is the moment inertia of the piezoelectric material d31 is the piezoelectric constant (274*109 mm/V) V is the voltage applied (50200 V) E is the modulus of the beam (70 MPa) l is the length of the beam (440 mm) tc is the thickness of the piezoelectric material (1 mm) tb is the thickness of the beam (5 mm) E is the modulus of the piezoelectric material (70 MPa) wb is the width of beam (50 mm) wc is the width of the piezoelectric material (25 mm) and I b = Ic = wb tb 3 = 520.833 mm 4 12

wc tc 3 = 2.0833 mm 4 12 Substituting the value of the moment of inertia of the beam and the piezoelectric materia and also substituting other values related to conguration of the problem, one can get the nal displacement. For instance, for 50 volts,

6 274 10 9 50 70 103 520.83 70 103 2.083 5 440 1 5 (3 70 103 520.83 + 4 70 103 2.083) 2 520.833 70 103

= 24 m Values obtained analytically are compared with those obtained from the experimental set-up in Table 2. Steel smart beam An active structural member made of steel with a PZT crystal (lead zirconium titanite) was used in this experiment. Fig. 4 shows the geometry of the cantilever beam with the piezoelectric actuator. Experimental procedure An LVDT was used to measure static deection of the tip of the beam at its free end. The signals from the LVDT were transmitted to a displacement indicator. The
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

190

C. Bendigeri et al.

TABLE 2 Comparison of the experimental and analytical results for the aluminum smart beam
Voltage applied (V) Deection (m) Analytical 50 100 150 200 24 48 72 96 Experiment 25 51 71 95

Fig. 4 Dimensions of the steel beam with a piezoelectric material.

Deflection (mm)

0.12 0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 100 200 300

Voltage (volts)

Fig. 5 Static deection of the piezoelectric steel smart beam obtained from experiment.

block diagram for this experimental set-up would be similar to the one shown in Fig. 2. The LVDT was placed at the tip of the beam and the initial deection was noted. Then voltage applied to the piezoelectric actuator varied from 50 to 200 V. For each voltage increment, the corresponding deection was measured. Fig. 5 shows the results.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

Piezoelectric smart structures

191

Smart composite beam (carbon/epoxy and PZT) In this experiment the base beam was made of carbon/epoxy composite. A piezoelectric patch was mounted on this beam and subjected to an electric eld. The geometry details and composite beam with PZT is shown in Fig. 6. This case study involves the combination of an orthotropic material such as the composite used and piezoelectric materials. Specimen preparation The carbon/epoxy composite beam was fabricated for this experiment. The resin LY 556 was heated at 60 C and hardener HT 972 was mixed with it. Acetone was added to the mixture of resin and hardener to achieve the required consistency. Carbon bers in fabric form were added (to 60% volume fraction) for reinforcement.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6 Smart composite beam. (a) Details of geometry. (b) Beam with PZT actuator.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

192

C. Bendigeri et al.

Impregnation of the fabric was carried out on a heated plate at 60 C. Trapped air was removed using rollers. The curing was done for 3 hours at 120 C and a pressure of 7 bars; post-curing lasted 1 hour at 180 C. The beam was cut to shape using diamond-cutting equipment. The composite was a cross-ply lamination, with ber orientation angles in the alternate layers of 0/90/0/90. The piezoelectric actuator was bonded on to the composite beam after cleaning the surface and marking the position. The leads of the pig tail provided with the piezoelectric materials were connected to the instruments via another terminal and the specimen was clamped to conduct the experiment. Experimental procedure A block diagram of the experiment would be similar to one shown in Fig. 2. The procedure for conducting the experiment was as follows: The composite beam with the piezoelectric material was clamped tightly at one side as a cantilever. The variable DC supply (dimmerstat with power transformer, variable DC supply 0200 V and 1 A) was applied to the PZT on the beam. The voltage applied to the PZT caused the beam to deect. The deection at the tip of the beam was measured using an LVDT. The measured results are compared with the analytically derived values in Table 3. Aluminum smart beam subjected to free vibration Free vibration analysis of smart beam made of aluminum alloy with a PZT patch was carried out. Fig. 7 show the geometry of the cantilever beam with the piezoelectric actuator. The block diagram of the experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 8. Experimental procedure The function generator generated a sine wave at 10 V and this is passed on to the piezoelectric actuator drive amplier, where it was amplied from 10 V to 145 V and connected to the actuator.
TABLE 3 Comparison of the experimental and analytical results for the composite smart beam
Deection (m) Analytical 50 100 150 200 16 31 46 61 Experiment 15.7 30.6 45.3 60.4

Voltage applied (V)

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

Piezoelectric smart structures

193

Fig. 7 Geometry of the aluminum beam with the piezoelectric material for vibration analysis.

Fig. 8 The block diagram for the free vibration test of the piezoelectric smart structure.

The frequency from the signal generator was increased gradually and passed on to the actuator. An oscilloscope was attached to sensor and the high-amplitude reading on the coaxial resonator oscillator (CRO) corresponded to the natural frequency. First and second natural frequencies were determined experimentally. The higher frequencies could not be measured due to the limitations of the instrumentation used. A normal mode analysis was carried out to obtain the fundamental natural frequency for the smart beam with the PZT. The results obtained were compared with results obtained by analytical calculations (Table 4).
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

194

C. Bendigeri et al.

TABLE 4 Comparison of natural frequencies (Hz) of the smart beam obtained using analytical and experimental methods
Analytical method 61 393 1082 2122 Experiment 58 380

Analytical method The analytical equations pertaining to the rst fundamental frequency of the beam are presented here. The circular frequency: Ct a L2 where Ct has the value 3.52 for mode I, 22.4 for mode II, 61.7 for mode III and 121 for mode IV.

a = EI A Moment of inertia: bd 3 12 Natural frequency: I= FZ =

The conguration for the present experiment is as follows (see Fig. 7). Length of beam: L = 200 mm Width of the beam: b = 25 mm Depth of the beam: d = 3 mm Area of cross-section: A = 75 mm2 Substituting the values of present conguration in the above equations we get the following values: moment of inertia I = 56.2 mm4; a = 4409585. Using this value of a we obtain the circular frequency = 388 rad/s and we then obtain rst natural frequency as 61 Hz. Similarly, the circular frequency for the second mode is obtained with the value of Ct as 22.4 and hence the natural frequency is obtained as 393 Hz. Table 4 compares the natural frequencies derived from this analytical method with those determined experimentally. Although only the rst two natural frequencies could be determined from the experiment, the analytical and nite element approach could compute the natural
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

Piezoelectric smart structures

195

frequency of higher modes. As can be seen from Table 4, there was good agreement between the methods of estimation. Conclusion A set of experiments was carried out on the different smart beams with piezoelectric materials and related instruments attached. The static and dynamic behavior of the structural member was examined. The results of the experiments using piezoelectric materials in combination with isotropic and orthotropic materials were compared with the results obtained by analytical methods, and there was good agreement. The experimental results could similarly be used for the validation of nite element analysis. References
[1] E. F. Crawley and K. B. Lazarus, Induced strain actuation of isotropic and anisotropic plate, AIAA J, 29 (1991), 944951. [2] Y. Matsuzaki and M. Toyama, Vibration of a cantilevered beam decreasing development and retrieval analysis and experiment, SPIE J, 2190 (1994), 705710. [3] J. Jin and R. C. Batra, Effect of electromechanical coupling on static deformations and natural frequencies, Transactions on Ultrasonic, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE, 52(7) (2005). [4] T. C. Manjunath and B. Bandyopadhyay, Vibration suppression of timoshenko beams with embedded piezoelectrics using POF, Int. J. Intelligent Technology, 1(1) (2006), 112119. [5] P. Bhattacharya, M. Rose and S. Homann, Effects of piezoactuated damping on parametrically excited laminated composite plates, J Reinforced Plastic Composites, 25(8) (2006), 801813. [6] J. Mathew, B. Sankar and L. Cattafesta, Finite element modeling of piezoelectric actuators for active ow control applications, AIAA J (2001), 891898. [7] G. L. C. M. de Abreu, J. F. Ribeiro and V. Steffen, Finite element modeling of a plate with localized piezoelectric sensors and actuators, J Brazilian Society Mechanical Science Engineering, 26(2) (2000), 214232. [8] F. J. Von Preissig and E. S. Kim, Topics in nite element modeling of piezoelectric MEMS, AIAA J (2002), 512531. [9] M. Hofer and R. Lerch, Finite element calculation of wave propagation and excitation in periodic piezoelectric systems, Fifth World Congress on Computational Mechanics (Vienna, Austria, 2002). [10] Q. Luo, High precision shape control of plates using orthotropic piezoelectric actuators, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 42 (2006), 10091020. [11] W. H. Duan, Finite element solution for intermittent-contact problem with piezoelectric actuation in ring type USM, Finite Element in Analysis and Design, 43 (2007), 193205. [12] S. H. Moon, Finite element analysis and design of control system with feedback output using piezoelectric sensor/actuator for panel utter suppression, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design (2006), 10711078.

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 38/3

Copyright of International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education is the property of Manchester University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.