Fabrication of piezoelectric laminate for smart material and crack sensing capability

Piezoelectric laminate composite has been successfully fabricated as a smart material by a spark plasma sintering process. Fully or nearly fully dense BaTiO3/MgO (pre-sintered)/BaTiO3, BaTiO3/MgO with 10 vol% BaTiO3/BaTiO3 laminates were sintered at 1300 °C with a holding time of 5 min under a pressure of 35 MPa. From EDS analysis, no reaction between BaTiO3 and MgO layers was observed along the interface. Effects of cycle stress and stress intensity factor on the voltage response of the proposed laminates were investigated for confirmation of a crack detecting capability. The resultant relationship between crack length and voltage response range clearly showed that the proposed laminates have a crack sensing capacity.