Applications of Piezoelectric Materials in Structural Health Monitoring and Repair: Selected Research Examples

Abstract

The paper reviews the recent applications of piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and repair conducted by the authors. First, commonly used piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and structure repair are introduced. The analysis of plain piezoelectric sensors and actuators and interdigital transducer and their applications in beam, plate and pipe structures for damage detection are reviewed in detail. Second, an overview is presented on the recent advances in the applications of piezoelectric materials in structural repair. In addition, the basic principle and the current development of the technique are examined.

Keywords

• structural health monitoring
• structural repair
• piezoelectric sensors and actuators
• wave propagation
• interdigital transducer
• wavelet transform