Investigation of acoustic emission source localization performance on the plate structure using piezoelectric fiber composites

Due to its unique structure, piezoelectric fiber composites (PFCs) is receiving more and more interests in the field of structural health monitoring. In this paper, PFCs was fabricated and used as an acoustic emission sensor. The simulated signal was generated by a pencil lead break on an epoxy plate and the localization of source was measured based on acoustic emission technology. The results showed that PFCs exhibited an apparent directional sensitivity owing to its unique electric field and architectural heterogeneity, which was different from the conventional piezoelectric disc and 1-3 composite sensors. When the acoustic emission source was located along the fiber length, the PFC sensor could provide precise location information no matter how long the distance between the source and sensor was. The planar localization performance demonstrated that PFCs presented a higher accuracy in the direction normal to the fiber length than in other directions owing to the directivity of PFCs sensor's response. These special differences of PFCs could be validated by the sensitivity factors in various directions The high sensitivity ensured PFCs possessed a capability of reliable and precise localization that was comparable to a conventional PZT disc sensor.