Open Access

ARTICLE

Experimental Study of Effect of Temperature Variations on the Impedance Signature of PZT Sensors for Fatigue Crack Detection

Saqlain Abbas^1,2,*, Fucai Li¹, Zulkarnain Abbas^3,4, Taufeeq Ur Rehman Abbasi⁵, Xiaotong Tu⁶, Riffat Asim Pasha⁷

1 Institute of Vibration, Shock and Noise, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Management and Technology, Sialkot Campus, Sialkot, Pakistan
3 Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Fertilizer Cooperation (NFC), Institute of Engineering and Technology, Multan, Pakistan
5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), Mirpur, 10250, Pakistan
6 The School of Information Science and Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
7 Mechanical Engineering Department, UET Taxila, Taxila, Pakistan

* Corresponding Author: Saqlain Abbas. Email:

Sound & Vibration 2021, 55(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.32604/sv.2021.013754

Received 19 August 2020; Accepted 10 December 2020; Issue published 19 January 2021

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is recognized as an efficient tool to interpret the reliability of a wide variety of infrastructures. To identify the structural abnormality by utilizing the electromechanical coupling property of piezoelectric transducers, the electromechanical impedance (EMI) approach is preferred. However, in real-time SHM applications, the monitored structure is exposed to several varying environmental and operating conditions (EOCs). The previous study has recognized the temperature variations as one of the serious EOCs that affect the optimal performance of the damage inspection process. In this framework, an experimental setup is developed in current research to identify the presence of fatigue crack in stainless steel (304) beam using EMI approach and estimate the effect of temperature variations on the electrical impedance of the piezoelectric sensors. A regular series of experiments are executed in a controlled temperature environment (25°C–160°C) using 202 V1 Constant Temperature Drying Oven Chamber (Q/TBXR20-2005). It has been observed that the dielectric constant ε₃₃^T which is recognized as the temperature-dependent constant of PZT sensor has sufficiently influenced the electrical impedance signature. Moreover, the effective frequency shift (EFS) approach is optimized in term of significant temperature compensation for the current impedance signature of PZT sensor relative to the reference signature at the extended frequency bandwidth of the developed measurement system with better outcomes as compared to the previous literature work. Hence, the current study also deals efficiently with the critical issue of the width of the frequency band for temperature compensation based on the frequency shift in SHM. The results of the experimental study demonstrate that the proposed methodology is qualified for the damage inspection in real-time monitoring applications under the temperature variations. It is capable to exclude one of the major reasons of false fault diagnosis by compensating the consequence of elevated temperature at extended frequency bandwidth in SHM.

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