Poling effects on the performance of a lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber in a structural health monitoring sensor

•This study investigates poling effects on the performance of a lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber module.•The poling effects on the sensor characteristics of the lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber module were investigated by simulating several situations.•The flexible lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber modules are directly attached on the structure with various shapes.•The monitoring results confirm the potential for estimating impact location and problems with the structure.•The poling process contributed greatly to the improvement of the sensing performance.

This study investigates the poling effects on the performance of a lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber module. The lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber of 0.78Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.22SrTiO3 (BNT-ST) and polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) is prepared by an electrospinning, and the lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber modules are fabricated with the bottom and top interdigitated electrodes. The poling effects on the performance of the lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber module were investigated by XRD and temperature-dependence dielectric properties. The possibility of a flexible structural health monitoring sensor application is confirmed by measuring the output voltage of the poled and unpoled lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber modules. The flexible lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber modules are directly attached on the structure with various shapes. We expect that this system will improve the efficiency of sensing. Tests on impact detection and the structural health monitoring based on the poled and unpoled lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber modules were carried out. The monitoring results confirm the potential for estimating impact location and problems with the structure, which have been observed more obviously in the poled lead-free piezoelectric nanofiber modules.