Distributed piezoelectric guided-T-wave generator, design and analysis

In this work, the definition and design of a specific wave generator concept is presented. The generator aims at providing well referenced T waves for structural health monitoring applications. A distributed network of piezoelectric patches network is considered. Shear effects is the most pertinent effect. An array of 16 piezoelectric stacks is found to be relevant. The numerical simulation confirms the finding. An experimental test bench is also provided in order to validate the concept. The ability of the distributed system in generating pure T waves is discussed. The concept is also employed in order to assess the distributed system overall performances. Numerical and experimental results confirm some specific features in the wave reflection coefficient based on the interaction between the damaged waveguide dynamics and torsional waves propagation.